
COpyRiGHT DEPOSIT. 



^ 



THOMAS JEFFERSON'S 
GERMANTOWN LETTERS 



Five Hundred Copies of this book 
have been printed from type 

No. ^M-Y'^'^P^ 



JEFFERSON'S 

Germantown Letters 



Together with Other Papers Relating 

to His Stay in Germantown During 

the Month (j/^ Nov EMiBER, 1793 



BY 

Charles Francis Jenkins 

PRESIDENT OF 
THE SITE AND RELIC SOCIETY 
OF GERMANTOWN 



^ 



PHILADELPHIA 

William J. Campbell 
1906 






LIBaARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

MAR ? 1907 

CopyrieM Entry , 
CLASS /f XXC., Ne, 
COPY i3. 



copyright, 1906, by 
Charles Francis Jenkins 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction .._-.-. 1 1 

Part I. 

The Germantown Letters - - - 27 

Part II. 

Germantown Cabinet Meetings - - 131 

Part III. 

Cabinet Decisions - - - - - 153 

Part IV. 

The Financial Diary - - - - 159 

State Department Expenses - - - 165 

Part V. 

The Oration - - - - - - 169 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PORTRAIT OF JEFFERSON 

Painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1804. From the 

ORIGINAL portrait NOW IN THE POSSESSION OF BoWDOIN 

College, Maine Frontispiece ^ 

KING OF PRUSSIA TAVERN 

The home of Jefferson during a portion of his stay in 
Germantown. Now Nos. 5516-18-20 Main Street, 
Germantown. This is a rear view of the old inn. 
From a photograph taken about 1896 - Opposite page 33. 

FIRE PLACE IN THE KING OF PRUSSIA 

Germantown was so crowded when Jefferson arrived 
November ist, 1793, that he was almost compelled to 

WRAP himself in HIS CLOAK AND SLEEP BEFORE THE OPEN FIRE. 

From a photograph taken about 1896 

Opposite page 49 • 

FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM JEFFERSON TO 
HERMAN Le ROY 

Photographed from the original in possession of the 
Pennsylvania Historical Society . Opposite page 97 ' 

HOUSE OCCUPIED BY JEFFERSON 

After leaving the King of Prussia Tavern, on the 
authority of John F. Watson, Jefferson occupied the 
house NOW Nos, 5275 — 5277 Main Street, German- ^ 

TOWN. From a photograph, 1906 - Opposite page 129 ' 

FACSIMILE OF PAGE FROM THE FINANCIAL DIARY 
Photogravure from the original in the possession of 
the Lenox Library, New York - Opposite page 161 '^ 

GERMANTOWN ACADEMY 

Founded 1760. Offered by the Trustees as a meeting 
place for Congress. From an old photograph 

Opposite page 177 < 

STAIRWAY OF THE GERMANTOWN ACADEMY 

Walter R. Johnson, who delivered the oration on the 
death of Jefferson, was the principal of the Academy 

AND THE eulogy WAS PROBABLY DELIVERED THERE. FrOM 

A RECENT PHOTOGRAPH - - OpPOSITEPAGE I93 



INTRODUCTION 



THOMAS JEFFERSON, while Secretary 
of State in Washington's cabinet, spent 
the month of November, 1793, in Ger- 
mantown. In August of that year the first 
great epidemic of yellow fever visited Philadel- 
phia, and the President, the members ot his 
cabinet and nearly every government official 
sought safety outside the stricken city. Wash- 
ington and his household set out for Mount 
Vernon on September 9th. Jefferson in the spring 
had taken a house on the east bank of the 
Schuylkill, within sight of Bartram's and Gray's 
gardens. Here he spent the heated days with his 
daughter Maria as companion, living in the open 
air and enjoying the broad prospect, and partic- 
ularly the shade of the high plane trees which 
entirely embosomed the house. Under them he 
breakfasted, dined, wrote, read and received his 
company. Situated as he was, there was little 



xii INTRODUCTION 

to fear from the yellow fever, but by the 15th 
of September every official matter having been 
disposed of, and all the clerks in his office but 
one having fled the city, Jefferson concluded to 
return home. The start from Philadelphia was 
made on September 15th, and the party reached 
Monticello on the 22nd of that month. 

Here he remained until late in October, 
when the President having selected Germantown 
as a convenient and safe gathering point for the 
members of Congress and the cabinet, Jefferson 
set out for this place. 

The Secretary of State during the summer 
had resigned his office to take effect December 
31st. Relinquishing his post in mid- winter 
would compel him, should he return imme- 
diately to Virginia, to plough through the 
heavy, muddy roads, and for this reason he did not 
wish to use his own horses and carriage, and the 
journey from Monticello to Germantown was 
therefore made by horseback and the public 
stage. The start was made on October 25th, 
with two servants, James and Bob. The latter 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

returned with the horses from Fredericksburg, 
which was reached on the 27th. The next 
day's journey was a stage ride to Alexandria, and 
the second day of stage riding brought them to 
Bahimore. Here Jefferson joined the President, 
who had left Mount Vernon on the 28th, and 
here they found the stages had not resumed 
running to Philadelphia, and that it was conse- 
quently necessary to hire a private conveyance. 

The united party came by way of Elkton 
and Wilmington, spending two nights on the 
road, and reaching Germantown about noon on 
November ist. Jefferson paid Hartman Elliot 
for six days' service, three each going and com- 
ing from Baltimore to Germantown, thirty dol- 
lars. In addition there were ferriage charges, 
which amounted to $3.18. The total expense 
from Fredericksburg to Germantown was 
$77.65, of which Jefferson bitterly complained 
when writing to his family and his Virginia 
friends, and warned them of the ** harpies" 
who were preying on unfortunate travellers. 

Arriving in Germantown, the President 



xiv INTRODUCTION 



was quartered in a house occupied by the Rev. 
Frederick Herman, now number 130 West 
School House Lane, while Jefferson found 
shelter at the King of Prussia tavern, an import- 
ant hostelry still standing, but now used for 
other purposes, Nos. 5516-18-20 Main Street. 
Although the yellow fever by this time had al- 
most entirely disappeared in Philadelphia, the 
suburbs were still crowded with refugees. Every 
inn, of which there were quite a number in 
Germantown, was filled to its capacity and 
the Secretary of State found great difficulty in 
obtaining accommodations. A bed in the corner 
of the public room of the King of Prussia was 
the best he could obtain, the alternative being 
to wrap himself in his cloak and sleep before 
the open fire. Little rooms in the tavern, which 
Jefferson describes as ** cuddies," without a bed, 
and without a chair or table cost four to eight 
dollars a week, and at the time there was 
not a single lodging house offering accommo- 
dations. By the 9th of the month, however, 
the refugees began flocking back to the city, 



INTR OD UCTION x v 

and Jefferson was able to engage beds at the 
tavern for his friends, Madison and Monroe, 
whom he momentarily expected. They did 
not, however, come to Germantown, but later 
went directly to Philadelphia. By the 14th of 
November the Secretary of State and Thomas 
Lapsley, the "office keeper," who had been with 
him at the King of Prussia, were able to obtain 
rooms elsewhere for the accommodation of them- 
selves and of the office. Just where these were is 
not definitely known. Watson in his Annals states 
that the house now numbered 5275 and 5277 
Main Street was the one occupied by Jefferson 
and by Edmund Randolph, the Attorney General. 
In 1793 this property belonged to Matthew 
Clarkson, then Mayor of Philadelphia, and at 
that time valiantly fighting the yellow fever in 
the stricken city. When the annalist recorded 
the tradition the building was occupied by him- 
self and the Bank of Germantown, of which he 
was the cashier. If Edmund Randolph shared 
the house with the Secretary of State, it was 
only to maintain an office there as he was quar- 



xvi INTR OD UCTION 



tered at the home of Nathan Spencer, nearly a 
mile from the centre of the town, out what is 
now Church Lane. 

Jefferson writing to Madison on November 
1 7th says, " I have got good lodgings for Monroe 
and yourself, that is to say, a good room with a 
fire place and two beds, in a pleasant and con- 
venient position, with a quiet family. They 
will breakfast you, but you must mess in a 
tavern. There is a good one across the street. 
This is the way all must do, and all I think will 
not be able to get even half beds." It, of 
course, does not necessarily follow that this 
double room was in the same house where Jef- 
ferson was lodging. Indeed, the presumption 
is that it was not, but that it was near by. 

With all the accumulated business to 
master, amidst the cramped quarters, the con- 
stant bustle and the coming and going of 
the saddened citizens, Jefferson worked away, 
not without some physical discomfort, for he 
was troubled with the toothache. On the 13th 
he paid Dr. Gilliams for drawing a tooth and 



INTRODUCTION xvii 



again a week later records another payment to 
the dentist for further services. The servant 
James, whom he had brought with him, was 
the almoner for the household, and the financial 
diary on another page discloses various charges 
for housekeeping expenses, including fuel and 
groceries, which would seem to indicate that 
some meals at least were provided in the rented 
rooms. " Hiccory" wood was bought in con- 
siderable quantities, half of it for personal use 
and half properly chargeable to office expenses. 
Thomas Lapsley, the " office keeper," was 
boarded by a neighbor, Weiss. On November 
30th a Mr. Crosby furnished "waggonage" from 
Germantown to Philadelphia and the first Secre- 
tary of State of the United States shook the dust, 
or more probably the mud, of Germantown's 
unpaved Main Street from his feet and went into 
the city for his last month of service as a mem- 
ber of the cabinet. 

As complete an account of the movements 
of the President and his circle of official advisors 
in Germantown, including those of Thomas 



xviii INTRODUCTION 



Jefferson, as was obtainable at the time, was 
given in the author's " Washington in German- 
town," published in 1905. The information 
relating to Jefferson's movements here gathered 
is largely in addition to what was there pre- 
sented. But two of the letters in this volume 
were printed in the previous work. 

Three editions of the letters and writings 
of Thomas Jefferson have so far been issued. 
The first, the Memoirs, Correspondence and 
Miscellanies, edited by his grandson, Thomas 
Jefferson Randolph, and published in Charlottes- 
ville, Va., in 1829. This edition contains two of 
the letters written from Germantown. The next 
edition of Jefferson's writings was authorized 
by Congress, and usually called the Congress 
edition ; edited by H. A. Washington. This 
was published in 1853 and contains seven of the 
letters written during November 1793, includ- 
ing the two published in the earlier edition. 
In 1892 the third edition. The Writings of 
Thomas Jefferson, was edited by Paul Leicester 
Ford, and this contains thirteen Germantown 



INTRODUCTION xix 

letters, including four published in the earlier 
editions. It will thus be seen that in the three 
essays to print the letters of Thomas Jefferson, 
but sixteen of the sixty-three letters included in 
the present volume have been brought to light. 
In the case of Mr. Ford, this was entirely a 
matter of selection, for the originals of nearly 
all these letters were accessible to him in the 
Library of Congress, and as a matter of fact all the 
letters in this volume, except where noted, are 
copied from the originals or copies of the Jef- 
ferson manuscripts in that library. 

While it is quite likely that this collection, 
which includes every letter obtainable at the 
present time, will be valuable mainly as stimu- 
lating interest in the local history of German- 
town, still it is hoped by the compiler that 
many of the letters will be of interest to the 
student of general history. They will at least 
disclose the great activity of the office of the 
Secretary of State during this busy month. 

The letters naturally group themselves in 
two classes, those concerning the Secretary of 



XX INTRO D UCTION 

State's private affairs and the official correspond- 
ence of the department. Of the former, none 
are more interesting and lively than the letters 
to his two daughters, Martha Jeff^erson Ran- 
dolph and Miss Maria Jeff'erson at Monticello. 
Filled as they are with little personal concerns, 
with information of a domestic character, with 
the interest of an absent father in the affairs and 
doings of his home, they yet convey considera- 
ble information of a public character. The letter 
to his son-in-law, Thomas Mann Randolph, 
offering him his horse, Ferguson, is a model of 
tact and kindliness. The other private letters 
cover all the fields of Jefferson's activities. His 
devotion to science is disclosed by the importa- 
tion of the orrery and the telescope, his practical 
knowledge and personal management of his 
farm is shown by the purchase of sheep and 
clover seed, and the terms of employment of his 
supervisor ; his desire for the general promotion 
of agriculture is displayed in his solicitude for 
the safety of the model of the threshing machine, 
sent at considerable trouble and expense from 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

England, and his immediate interest in the prac- 
tical possibilities of Whitney's invention of the 
cotton gin. Then, too, there are the many let- 
ters of financial matters, shadowing in a way the 
saddest chapter in the great man's life. As late 
as 1823 Jefferson was still writing to Herman 
LeRoy, of New York, on the subject of an in- 
debtedness which there is every reason to be- 
lieve was the same as is disclosed in the letter of 
November 17, 1793. No letter is more char- 
acteristic than that to his Rhode Island friend, 
David Howell, showing the desire of the man 
for his home, his books and his farm, a longing 
which possessed him through his public life. 
The letters to James Madison bespeak the 
warm friendship which existed between these 
two remarkable Virginian neighbors, a friendship 
which death alone could sever. Perhaps it 
would be hard to find correspondence of any 
other month which so fully covers the many- 
sided interests and activities of the Sage of 
Monticello, or which in the official letters dis- 
close more of the wide outlook and ability of 
the statesman. 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

The correspondence with Genet, the Min- 
ister of France, relates entirely to the contro- 
versies and troubles which the Revolution in 
France and the intemperate conduct of the 
French envoy brought upon this govern- 
ment. The correspondence with George Ham- 
mond, the Minister of Great Britain, covers the 
difficulties with that country, growing out of 
the yet unfulfilled terms of the Treaty of Peace 
and the complications occasioned by the war 
with France. Both of these matters are treated 
at length in the general histories covering this 
troubled period of our nation's life and the 
latter correspondence has been published com- 
plete in book form. 

Another official letter of particular interest 
is that to the District Attorneys of the United 
States, explaining the limit of jurisdiction 
claimed by this government in the waters 
bordering our seaboard. Throughout many of 
the letters considerable local information is dis- 
closed in little references here and there. All 
in all, the compiler hopes that the reader will 



INTR OD UCTION xxiii 

agree with him that the collection is of perma- 
nent value, that it is worth publishing both as 
giving to Germantown the credit which is its 
due as being the temporary capital of the 
United States, and as a permanent contribution 
to an important period of our nation's history. 

In addition to the letters a number of 
separate and original documents germane to the 
subject of Jefferson's stay in Germantown have 
been included. The extracts from the financial 
diary, covering the expenses of the trip from 
Monticello and the stay in Germantown, con- 
tain much accurate personal information. Jef- 
ferson's graphic account of the Germantown 
cabinet meetings is very properly included, 
while the eulogy delivered by Walter R. John- 
son on the death of Jefferson and Adams has 
been added that it may be available for present day 
readers, A careful search fails to disclose a copy 
of this booklet in any of the Philadelphia libraries 
or in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 

In concluding, expressions of obligation 
for assistance should be made to Mr. Wilber- 



xxiv INTRODUCTION 

force Eames of the Lenox Library, New York 
City, to Mr. Edward H. Bonsall, Philadelphia, 
and to Mr. S. M. Hamilton of the Library of 
the Department of State, Washington, D. C, 
Dr. John W. Jordan of the Historical Society 
of Pennsylvania and Dr. Naaman H. Keyser of 
Germantown. 



PART I. 



THE 

GERMANTOWN 

LETTERS 



The Germantown Letters 



JEFFERSON TO MADISON (?)» 

Germantown Nov. 2, 1793. 
Sir 

I overtook the President at Baltimore, & we 
arrived here yesterday, myself fleeced of seventy odd 
dollars to get from Fredricksburg here, the stages 
running no further than Baltimore. I mention this to 
put you and Mr. Monroe on your guard, the fever 
in Philadelphia has so much abated as to have almost 
disappeared, the inhabitants are about returning. It 
has been determined that the President shall not 
interfere with the meeting of Congress. R.[andolph] 
H.[amilton] & K.[nox] were of opinion he had 
a right to call them to any place but that the 
occasion did not call for it. I think the President 

*While no name is given it is supposed this letter was addressed 
to James Madison. 



28 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

inclined to the opinion. I proposed a proclam. 
notifying that the Executive business would be done 
here till further notice, which I believe will be agreed. 
H. R. Lewis, Rawle* & all concur in the neces- 
sity that Congress should meet in Phila. & vote 
there their own adjournment, if it shall then be neces- 
sary to change the place, the question will be between 
N. Y. & Lancaster, the Pensylv. members are very 
anxious for the latter, & will attend punctually to sup- 
port it as well as to support Muhlonburg & oppose 
the appointment of Smith (S. C.) speaker, which is 
intended by the Northern members, according to 
present appearances this place cannot lodge a single 
person more, as a great favor I have got a bed in the 
corner of the public room of a tavern :f and must so 
continue till some of the Philadelphians make a 

*William Rawle then U. S. District Attorney for Pennsylvania. 

fThis was the King of Prussia tavern. No. 5516-18-20 Main 
Street, perhaps in that day the leading tavern of Germantown, cer- 
tainly the most centrally located. A drive-way at the south end of 
the King of Prussia leads into what at one time were the extensive 
back buildings and stables. An examination of the south gable of the 
old tavern and the building the other side of the drive-way would 
seem to indicate that at one time joists had been thrown across between 
the two houses. The writer has speculated as to whether this might 
not have been done when Germantown was so over-crowded with the 
yellow fever refugees from Philadelphia and rooms were at a great 
premium. 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 29 

vacancy by removing into the city. Then we must 
give from 4 to 6 or 8 dollars a week for cuddies with- 
out a bed, and sometimes without a chair or table, 
there is not a single lodging-house in the place. — Ross * 
& Willing^ are alive. Hancock:§ is dead. Johnson || 
of Maryld. has refused. Ru. L. & McL.J in con- 
templation, the last least.. — you will have seen 
Genet's letters to Moultrie & to myself, of the last I 
know nothing but from the public papers ; and he 
published Moultrie's letter & his answer the moment 
he wrote it. you will see that his inveteracy against 
the President leads him to meditate the embroiling 
him with Congress, they say he is going to be mar- 
ried to a daughter of Clinton's** if so, he is afraid 

*John Ross, a prominent merchant of Philadelphia. 

■{•Thomas Willing, President of the United States Bank. 

§john Hancock, the first signer of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, at this time Governor of Massachusetts. He died October 
8th, 1793. 

1 1 The proffered office of Secretary of State to succeed Jefferson. 
This was Thomas Johnson a leading statesman of Maryland and ex- 
Justice of the Supreme Court. 

I Ru [tledge] L [ivingston] , and McL [urg] ? 

**Edmond Charles Edouard Genet minister of France in the 
United States married the daughter of Governor George Clinton of 
New York and located permanently in the United States. His con- 
troversies with the United States authorities constituted a large part of 
the diplomatic activity of the summer and fall of 1793. A number 



30 THE GERMANTOfVN LETTERS 

to return to France. Hamilton* is ill, & suspicious 
he has taken the fever again by returning to his house, 
he of course could not attend here to-day, but the 
President showed me his letter on the right of calling 
Congress to another place. Adieu. 



JEFFERSON TO THOMAS MANN RANDOLPHf 

Germantown Nov. 2, 1793. 

Dear Sir 

After having experienced on my journey the 
extremes of heat, cold, dust & rain, I arrived here 
yesterday. I found at Baltimore that the stages run 
no further North, and being frpm that circumstance 
into the hands of the harpies who prey upon travellers, 

of letters in this collection and a good part of the deliberations of the 
cabinet in Germantown were devoted to the problems which arose 
through the intemperate speech and actions of the French minister. 

*Both Alexander Hamilton and his wife were taken down with 
the yellow fever early in the contagion. They recovered and on 
their return from a visit to New York state, occupied Fair Hill, the 
Norris mansion, on the Germantown road, about half way between 
that town and the city. Hamilton apparently was unwell through 
the month of November, as he was absent from a cabinet meeting late 
in the month on account of ill health. 

■{•Son-in-law of Jefferson, the husband of his daughter Martha, to 
whom he had been married February 23d 1790. 



THE GERMANTOfVN LETTERS 31 

was pretty well fleeced to get here. I think from 
Fredericksburg here with a single servant cost me up- 
wards of seventy dollars, before this change in the 
weather the fever had much abated in Philadelphia, & 
at this time it has almost entirely disappeared, 
insomuch that the inhabitants are very many of them 
returning into the city, this is very necessary for our 
accommodation here, as this place is so full that I have 
been able to obtain a bed in the corner of a public 
room of a tavern only, and that is a great favor, the 
other alternative being to sleep on the floor in my 
cloak before the fire, in this state I am waiting till 
some Philadelphians may take courage to go into the 
city, & make a vacancy here. Nothing will be done 
by the President as to the meeting of Congress, it is 
imagined that knowing he is here, and after settling 
informally to what place they will remove, they will go 
into the fields of the city and pass a regular vote, the 
pure blacks have been found insusceptible of the 
infection, the mixed blood has taken it. what is more 
singular is that tho' hundreds have been taken with 
the disease out of Philadelphia, have died of it after 
being well attended, yet not a single instance has 
occurred of any body's catching it out of Philadelphia^ 
the question for the session of Congress will lie 
between Philadelphia, New York & Lancaster. — 



32 THE GERMANTOJVN LETTERS 

Freneau's paper* is discontinued. I fear it is for the 
want of money, he promises to resume it before the 
meeting of Congress. 1 wish the subscribers in our 
neighborhood would send on their money, my love 
to my dear daughters & am with sincere esteem Dr. Sir 

Yours affectionately 

Th : Jefferson. 

P. S. Mr. Hollingsworth at the Head of Elk thinks 
he can immediately send me on a good overseer in the 
place of Rogers. 1 authorised him to allow exactly 
the same as to Biddle.-j- Consequently on his arrival 
I must get you to give him orders on Watson & Colo. 
Bell for the same necessaries which I had furnished to 
Biddle. 
Mr. Randolph. 

*Phi]ip Freneau, one of the early recognized poets of America, 
{o\xn(itdi ih.t National Gazette va. Philadelphia in October 1791, and 
continued its publication until October 26, 1793, when on account of 
the yellow fever and perhaps the lack of support, as Jefferson intimates, 
the project was abandoned. Freneau was employed as a clerk of 
foreign languages in the State Department, and his retention and pro- 
tection by Jefferson, in spite of the bitter attacks of the National 
Gazette on the President and his policies was warmly criticized by 
friends of the Administration. He resigned the office of translator 
October ist, 1793. 

"I" The terms under which Samuel Biddle, the overseer, had been 
engaged will be found in a letter to Jacob Hollingsworth on a later 
page. 




p 
t 
« 



>^^ 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS ^2 

JEFFERSON TO RICHARD DODSON. 

Germantown, Nov. 3. 93. 
Sir 

In my letter of Aug. 20. 1 asked the favor of you 
to furnish me a statement of the paiments made on my 
bill of exchange — & bond and of the balance due, & 
to have the same lodged at Monticello, where I pro- 
posed being during the month of October, that I 
might give definite directions for the payment of it. 
not having received it while there, I have now to ask the 
favor of it's being lodged there at any time before the 
beginning of January when I shall return there, to re- 
main, and will then take measures for the discharge of 
it. I am Sir 

Your very humble servt 

Th : Jefferson 
Mr. Richard Dodson 



JEFFERSON TO EDMOND GENET.* 

Germantown, November 5th 1793. 
Sir, 

I have the honor the inclose you the copy of a 
Letter from Mr. Moissonier Consul of France at Bal- 

*Minister of France to the United States. See foot note page 29. 



34 THE GERMANTOJVN LETTERS 

timore to the Governor of Maryland, announcing that 
Great Britain is about to commence hostilities against 
us, and that he purposes to collect the Naval force of 
your Republic in the Chesapeak and to post them as a 
Van-guard to derange the supposed designs of the 
enemy. 

The bare suggestion of such a fact, however im- 
probable, renders it a duty to inquire into it ; and I 
shall consider it as a proof of your friendship to our 
nation, if you have it in your power, and will be pleased 
to communicate to me the grounds of Mr. Moisson- 
ier's assertion, or any other respectable evidence on 
the part of Great Britain. 

In the mean while as we have reason to believe it 
unfounded, as they have in no instance as yet violated 
the sovereignty of our rights by any commitment of 
hostilities even on their enemies within our jurisdiction, 
we presume with confidence that Mr. Moissonier's 
fears are groundless. I have it therefore in charge to 
desire you to admonish Mr. Moissonier against the 
parade he proposes of stationing an advanced guard in 
the bay of Chesapeak, and against any hostile array, 
which under the profession of defensive operations may 
in fact generate those offensive. I flatter myself, Sir, 
that you will be so good as to join the effect of your 
authority of our government to prevent measures on 



THE GERMANTOJVN LETTERS 2S 



the part of this Agent of your Republic which may 
bring on disagreeable consequences. 

I have the honor to be with great respect, 

Sir 

Your most obedient & 

most humble servant — 
Th : Jefferson 



JEFFERSON TO EDMOND GENET. 

Germantown Nov. 5. 1793. 
Sir, 

I shall be late in acknowledging the receipt of your 

several letters written since my departure from Phila- 
delphia, not having received any of them till the 24th 
ult : and most of them only the last night. I have 
already laid some of them before the President and 
shall lay the others successively before him at as early 
moments as the pressure of business will permit. 

That of September 20. with the decree of the 
national convention of March 26. 1792 on the subject 
of a treaty of commerce was laid before him yesterday, 
and will be considered with all the respect & interest 
which its object necessarily requires. In the mean 
time, that I may be enabled to present him a faithful 
translation of the decree, I take the liberty of returning 
the copy to you with a prayer that you will have it ex- 
amined by your original, and see whether there is not 



36 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

some error in the latter part of the 2d. article, page 2 
where the description of the cargo to be re-exported 
from the Islands is so unusual as to induce me to sus- 
pect an error in the copyist. Having to return the 
decree for re-examination, I take the liberty of doing 
the same by the letter covering it, as in the first lines 
of the 7th page the sense appears to me incomplete, 
and I wish to be able to give it with correctness. 

I am able at present to acknowledge the receipt 
of your letter of October 19. desiring Exequaturs for 
Messrs. Runevert & Chervi, but not inclosing their 
original commissions. It is of indispensable necessity 
that these originals be produced to the President & 
copies of them filed of record in my office; because 
occasions may sometimes occur where authentic copies 
of them may be required which cannot be furnished 
but after an exhibition of the original itself. An ex- 
hibition of a copy & a copy from that would not be 
received as evidence by our courts in any case where it 
should be called for. 

I must therefore trouble you to find me the 
originals. 

I have the honor to be with sentiments of respect 
Sir, Your obedient & most humble servant 

Th : Jefferson 



THE GERMANTOJVN LETTERS 37 

THOMAS JEFFERSON TO TOBIAS LEAR.* 

Germantown Nov. 5. 1793. 
Dear Sir 

Your favor of Oct. 10. reached me at Monticello 
on the night before my departure ; that of Nov. i. last 
night. 1 have thrown upon paper very roughly such 
notes as my memory enables me to make, for my 
papers are not at present at this place. — I also inclose 
letters to such acquaintances of mine as I think may be 
most useful to you. there are none to London, be- 
cause I have none there, & you will easily get them 
from everybody ; and only one to Dumas, at Amster- 
dam, because Mr Greenleaf will so perfectly introduce 
you there. I could only have given you letters to the 
V. Staphorsts & Hubbard, with whom Mr Greenleaf 
is particularly connected. I have given you none to 
political men in Paris, because all my friends there have 
been turned adrift in the different stages of the pro- 
gression of their revolution. I add my sincere wishes 
for your success & safety, and assurances of perfect 
esteem & attachment from Dear Sir 

Your friend & servt 
P S. I retire decidedly Th: Jefferson 

the 1st day of January next. 

Mr Lear. 

^Tobias Lear was formerly private secretary to President Wash- 
ington, and was then about embarking for Europe. 



38 THE GERMANTOIVN LETTERS 

JEFFERSON TO DAVID RITTENHOUSE.* 

Germantown Nov. 6. 1793. 
Dear Sir 

You will receive herein inclosed the bill of lading 
& invoice for between 9. & 10. tons of copper shipped 
by Mr. Pinckneyf on board the Pigon for the use of 
the mint, for the reception & charges of which you 
will be pleased to give proper orders. 

It has been understood that Mr. WrightJ our 
engraver is dead, if this be the fact, will you be so 
good as to recommend for the office such person as 
you think, best qualified to execute. 

I hope Mrs. Rittenhouse & yourself have enjoyed 
good health during the late trying season and am with 
great & sincere esteem Dr. Sir 

Your friend & servt. 

Th : Jefferson 
Mr. Rittenhouse. 

*David Rittenhouse was appointed director of the Mint of the 
United States April 14, 1792, although he did not enter upon the 
duties of his office until July ist, 1793. He resigned the office on 
June 30, 1795. 

-f-Thomas Pinckney then U. S. Minister to Great Britain. 

IJoseph Wright, a portrait painter, had been appointed by 
Washington first designer and die sinker in the United States Mint. 
He and his wife both died of the yellow fever during the epidemic. 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 39 

JEFFERSON TO MESSRS. VIAR & JAUDENES.* 

Germantown Nov. 6. 1793. 

Gentlemen 

It was not till the 24th of October that I received 
your favor of the 2d of that month, informing me that 
the four Frenchmen therein named & described had 
set out from Philadelphia for Kentucky furnished with 
money, commissions, & instructions to proceed with a 
hostile enterprise from our territories against those of 
Spain. I took the first opportunity of laying the same 
before the President and was in consequence charged 
by him to communicate it to the Governor of Ken- 
tucky, with instructions to prevent such an enterprise 
by such peaceable means as the laws have provided if 
sufficient, but if insufficient to suppress it by the mili- 
tary force of his state: and I flatter myself that these 
measures will have the desired effect, the laws of our 
country do not permit us to seize the papers of individ- 
uals until they shall have done some act which subjects 
their persons to be arrested, for this reason no order 
can be given to violate the secrecy of their papers. 



*Don Joseph De Viar and Don Joseph De Jaudens were the joint 
commissioners from Spain to the United States. At a later date the for- 
mer was made Consul General and the latter Envoy Extraordinary, etc. 



40 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 



I have the honor to be with great esteem & re- 
spect, Gentlemen, 

Your most obedient 

& most humble servant 

Th : Jefferson. 
Messrs. Viar & Jaudenes. 



JEFFERSON TO GENERAL HENRY KNOX. * 

Germantown Nov. 6. 1793. 
Dear Sir 

As it is possible that the measures complained of 
by the representatives of Spain as meditated to be pur- 
sued by la Chaise & others for attempting hostilities 
from Kentucky against the Spanish settlements, may 
require the employment of military force by the Gover- 
nor of Kentucky, I have the honor to inclose you my 
letter to the Governor, stating the facts handed me by 
the Spanish gentlemen, & submit to yourself whether 
instructions from yourself to him may not be necessary 
with respect to the use of military force if necessary. 

* General Henry Knox, the Secretary of War, was quartered at 
this time at the country home of the Rev. William Smith, near the 
Falls of the Schuylkill. He was frequently in Germantown during the 
month of November 1793, attending cabinet meetings and conferences 
with other members of the goverment. 



THE GERMANTOJVN LETTERS 41 



my letter gives none on that subject. I have the hon- 
or to be with great esteem & respect Dear Sir 

Your most obedt. servt. 

Th : Jefferson 

P. S. be so good as to forward 
my letter with your own. 
The Secretary at War. 



GEORGE TAYLOR* TO JEFFERSON 

New York Nov. 8. 1793. 
i^ past II AM. 
Dear sir, 

Your favor of the 3rd. instant I have had the 
honor to receive a few moments ago. Ever willing to 
fulfil my duty to the utmost of my power I shall take 
immediate steps for complying with your desire to take 
arrangements for resuming the Business of the office. 
To this end I shall set off with my little family in the 
first days of next week. 

From the present state of the weather and of the 
disorder in Philadelphia, communicated thro' the 
medium of the public prints, it would seem rather im- 
prudent to risk a residence in that city. I should 

*Chief clerk of the Department of State, Blackwell and Bankson, 
mentioned in this letter, were also clerks in that office. 



42 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

therefore give a preference to Germantown for the 
present, tho' the expense should be greater than my 
circumstances will afford ; being convinced that on this 
occasion Congress will readily allow any extraordinary 
expenses necessarily incurred in prosecuting the public 
Business. 

I shall immediately forward a copy of your letter 
to Mr. Blackwell, who I am informed is on Long 
Island. As to the other Gentlemen, I am totally ig- 
norant of their places of Residence. I have not reed, 
a line from Mr. [Benjamin] Bankson since the 7. of 
Octr. last, tho' I have written three letters to him since 
that date. 

Apprehensive that I may miss this days post I 
must close. 

With every sentiment of Respect and sincere Re- 
gard, I have the honor to be 

Dr. Sir, Your mo. ob. & 
Mo. humble servt. 

Go. Taylor. 
Mr. Jefferson. 



JEFFERSON TO THE BRITISH MINISTER. 

(George Hammond) 

Germantown, Nov. 8, 1793. 
Sir, — The President of the United States thinking 
that before it shall be finally decided to what distance 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 43 

from our sea shores the territorial protection of the 
United States shall be exercised, it will be proper to 
enter into friendly conferences & explanations with the 
powers chiefly interested in the navigation of the seas 
on our coast, and relying that convenient occasions 
may be taken for these hereafter, finds it necessary in 
the mean time, to fix provisionally on some distance 
for the present government of these questions. You 
are sensible that very diflferent opinions & claims have 
been heretofore advanced on this subject. The greatest 
distance to which any respectable assent among nations 
has been at any time given, has been the extent of the 
human sight, estimated at upwards of 20. miles, and 
the smallest distance I believe, claimed by any nation 
whatever is the utmost range of a cannon ball, usually 
stated at one sea-league. Some intermediate distances 
have also been insisted on, and that of three sea leagues 
has some authority in its favor. The character of our 
coast, remarkable in some parts of it for admitting no 
vessels of size to pass near the shores, would entitle us 
in reason to as broad a margin of protected navigation 
as any nation whatever. Reserving however the ulti- 
mate extent of this for future deliberation the President 
gives instructions to the officers acting under his 
authority to consider those heretofore given them as 
restrained for the present to the distance of one sea- 



44 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

league or three geographical miles from the sea shore. 
This distance can admit ot no opposition as it is 
recognized by treaties between some of the powers 
with whom we are connected in commerce and naviga- 
tion, and is as little or less than is claimed by any of 
them on their own coasts. For the jurisdiction of the 
rivers and bays of the United States the laws of the 
several states are understood to have made provision, 
and they are moreover as being landlocked, within the 
body of the United States. 

Examining by this rule the case of the British 
brig Fanny, taken on the 8th of May last, it appears 
from the evidence that the capture was made four or 
five miles from the land, and consequently without the 
line provisionally adopted by the President as before 
mentioned.* 



JEFFERSON TO THE FRENCH MINISTER. 
(Edmond Charles Genet.) 

Germantown, November 8, 1793. 
Sir, — I have now to acknowledge and answer your letter 
of September 13, wherein you desire that we may de- 

*A letter identical with the above, omitting the last paragraph 
was sent to the representatives of Holland and Spain. On the 
draft, Jefferson has endorsed: ** These two drafts were shown to the 
Atty Genl. & approved without alterations. The fair copies were 
shown to Colo. Hamilton & Genl. Knox before dinner at Bockius' 
inn, Germantown & approved." 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 45 

fine the extent of the line of territorial protection 
on the coasts of the United States, observing that 
Governments and jurisconsults have different views on 
this subject. 

It is certain that, heretofore, they have been much 
divided in opinion as to the distance from their sea 
coasts, to which they might reasonably claim a right of 
prohibiting the commitment of hostilities. The great- 
est distance, to which any respectable assent among 
nations has been at any time given, has been the extent 
of the human sight, estimated at upwards of twenty 
miles, and the smallest distance, I believe, claimed by 
any nation whatever, is the utmost range of a cannon 
ball, usually stated at one sea league. Some inter- 
mediate distances have also been insisted on, and that 
of three sea-leagues has some authority in its favour. 
The character of our coasts, remarkable in considerable 
parts of it for admitting no vessels of size to pass near 
the shores, would entitle us, in reason, to as broad a 
margin of protected navigation, as any nation whatever. 
Not proposing, however, at this time, and without a 
respectful and friendly communication with the Powers 
interested in this navigation, to fix on the distance to 
which we may ultimately insist on the right of protec- 
tion, the President gives instructions to the officers, 
acting under this authority, to consider those heretofore 



46 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

given them as restrained for the present to the distance 
of one sea-league, or three geographical miles from the 
sea-shore. This distance can admit of no opposition 
as it is recognized by treaties between some of the 
Powers with whom we are connected in commerce and 
navigation, and is as little or less than is claimed by 
any of them on their own coasts. 

Future occasions will be taken to enter into ex- 
planations with them, as to the ulterior extent to which 
we may reasonably carry our jurisdiction. For that of 
the rivers and bays of the United States, the laws of 
the several States are understood to have made pro- 
vision, and they are, moreover, as being landlocked, 
within the body of the United States. 

Examining by this rule, the case of the British 
brig Fanny, taken on the 8th of May last, it appears 
from the evidence, that the capture was made four or 
five miles from the land, and consequently without the 
line provisionally adopted by the President as before 
mentioned. 

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of respect 

and esteem. Sir 

Your most obedient, 
and humble servant, 

Th : Jefferson* 

*In Jefferson's dr^ft of this letter is tound at the end a paragraph 
queried and struck out, as follows : 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 47 

JEFFERSON TO MADISON. 

Germantown, Nov. 9, '3. 

The stages from Philadelphia to Baltimore are to be 
resumed to-morrow, the fever has almostdisappeared. 
the Physicians say they have no new subject since the 
rain, some old ones are still to recover or die, & it is 
presumed that will close the tragedy, the inhabitants, 
refugees, are now flocking back generally ; this will 
give us accommodation here, the Pres. sets out to- 
morrow for Reading, & perhaps Lancaster to return 
in a week.''' he will probably remain here till the 
meeting of Congress, should Philadelphia become ever 
so safe, as the members may not be satisfied of that 
point till they have time to inform themselves. Toulon 

"With respect to the British ship William taken on the 3d of 
May last, the testimony as to the place of seizure varies from 2 to 5, 
miles from the sea shore. The information of a certain Peter Dalton 
stated in the paper inclosed in your letter of Oct. 19. extends the dis- 
tance from 14. to 16. miles. But his evidence not having been given 
before a magistrate legally qualified to place him under the solemnity 
of an oath & bound to cross examine him, I am to desire that his evi- 
dence, if it is to be insisted on may be taken in legal form, and for- 
warded for the consideration of the President." 

*Before starting on his trip to Reading and Lancaster Washington 
went into Philadelphia, much against the advice of some of his cabinet. 
This fact was published in many of the papers of the day in nearly 
identical words, the item having been copied from one of the Phila- 
delphia papers. The following is from " Herald of the United 



48 THE GERMANTOW.N LETTERS 

has surrendered to Engld. & Spain. Grandanse in 
St. Domingo to England, the British have received 
a check before Dunkirk, probably a great one, but the 
particulars cannot yet be depended on. it happened 
about the 5th of September, when Monroe & your- 
self arrive here, come to Bockeas's tavern (sign the 
K. [ing] of Prussia) I will have engaged beds there 
for you for your temporary accommodation. Adieu. 



EDWARD RUTLEGE TO JEFFERSON. 

Dear Sir 

I have been requested by the Gentlemen who 
have signed the within memorial, to place it under your 
Protection, & I do so, with the greatest chearfulness, 
because I know full well, that the sole motive by which 
they were actuated, was. Humanity. The People of 
St. Domingo, came to our Shores, in such Numbers, 
& in so destitute a Condition, & the Funds of our 
Citizens were so unequal to their comfortable Support, 
that the Memorialists, who are Respectable Merchants, 
& among the foremost in relieving the distressed, pre- 
vailed on poor Thompson (who felt as they did, for 
the Wretched) to take the Command of a small vessel. 

States", published at Warren, R. I., Saturday Nov. 23d, 1793 : 
"Philadelphia Nov. iith. With pleasure we mention the arrival of the 
President of the United States in town this day from Germantown." 




y 






THE GERMANTOJVN LETTERS 49 

& sail for the Island of St. Domingo, expressly for the 
Purpose, which is mentioned in the Dispatch. 

I know you to well to doubt of your assisance, if 
it can be effectually applied — The Method I must 
leave to yourself 

With Sentiments of real Affection I am 

My dear Sir, your sincere & obliged Friend 

Ed : Rutledge 
The Honble. 

T. Jefferson Esqr. &c. &c. 

Charleston, Novr. 9th. 1793. 



JEFFERSON TO HENRY REMSEN JR. * 

Germantown Nov. 9, 1793 
Dear Sir 

I am returned to this place about a week ago, the 
President having concluded to fix the Executive here 
until the meeting of Congress or till we shall see 
whether Philadelphia becomes safe, it is believed to be 
so now, insomuch that the refugee inhabitants are flock- 
ing into it. it is said there are no new subjects in the 
hands of the Physicians since the great rains, some 
of those before infected are still sick. I therefore think 
it probable that Congress will find it safe to sit there. 

* Henry Remsen Jr. was a leading merchant of New York. 



50 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 



we expect that knowing the President to be here it will 
be an evidence to them that this place is safe, that they 
will therefore gather here, consult informally together 
as to the place of their session, & having made up their 
minds on that point, will go into the fields of Phila- 
delphia (if they think the Congress house not safe) and 
there adjourn by a vote, their next meeting having 
been fixed by a joint vote ( which is a law as to this 
matter) it is understood that they cannot be a legal 
body, till they shall legally change the place. 

I am to acknowledge the receipt of your favors 
of Oct. I. 7. 12. and 1 thank you for your care of the 
letters, and the box containing my model of the thresh- 
ing machine.* about this machine I am most anxious, 

^'' My threshing machine is arrived at New York. Mr. Pinck- 
ney writes me word that the original from which this model is copied 
threshes 150. bushels of wheat in 8. hours, with 6. horses and 5. 
men. It may be moved either by water or horses. Fortunately the 
workman who made it (a millwright) is come in the same vessel to 
settle in America. I have written to persuade him to go on im- 
mediately to Richmd, offering him the use of my model to exhibit, 
and to give him letters to get him into immediate employ in making 
them. 1 expect an answer before I write to you again. I under- 
stand that the model is made mostly in brass, & in the simple form in 
which it was first ordered, to be worked by horses. It was to have 
cost 5. guineas, but Mr. Pinckney having afterwards directed it to be 
accommodated to water movement also, it has made it more compli- 
cated, and costs 13. guineas. It will "thresh any grain from the 
Windsor bean down to the smallest." Jefferson to Madison, Septem- 
ber 1st, 1793. 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 51 

as its most precious to my future occupation as a farmer. 
I will therefore pray you to send it by some American 
vessel going to Richmond, & not to any other place in 
Virginia, because were it landed at Norfolk, or any- 
where else I know from experience the certainty of 
losing it. great pains have been taken by Mr. Pinck- 
ney to procure the model & get it out to me, & it has 
cost 13. guineas. I will bear in mind the price of the 
[word obliterated] & send it by the first person I see 
going to New York : in the mean time should we go 
into Philadelphia and you should fulfill your purpose 
of visiting that place I shall be very happy to see you 
should I be still there as I shall be to the close of the 
year. I am with great and sincere esteem Dr. Sir 

Your friend & sert 

Th : Jefferson. 
P. S. be pleased to direct 

the box to the care of Colo. 

Robert Gamble merchant 

Richmd. 



JEFFERSON TO EDMOND GENET. 

Germantown, Novr. lOth 1793. 
Sir, 

As in cases where vessels are reclaimed by the 
subjects or citizens of the belligerent powers as having 
been taken within the jurisdiction of the United States, 



52 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

it becomes necessary to ascertain that fact by testimony 
taken according to the laws of the United States, The 
Governors of the several States to whom the applica- 
tions will be made in the first instance, are desired im- 
mediately to notify thereof the Attornies of their 
respective districts, The Attorney is thereupon in- 
structed to give notice to the principal Agent of both 
parties who may have come in with the prize, and also 
to the Consuls of the Nations interested, and to recom- 
mend to them to appoint, by mutual consent, arbiters 
to decide whether the captures were made within the 
jurisdiction of the United States, as stated to you in 
my letter of the 9th inst. according to whose award the 
Governor may proceed to deliver the Vessel to the 
one or the other party. But in case the parties or 
Consul shall not agree to receive arbiters, then the 
Attorney, or some person substituted by him, is to 
notify them of the time and place when and where he 
will be, in order to take the depositions of such wit- 
nesses as they may cause to come before him, which 
depositions he is to transmit for the information & 
decision of the President. 

It has been thought best to put this business 
into such a train as that the examination of the fact 
may take place immediately and before the witnesses 
may have again departed from the United States, 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS ^3 

which would too frequently happen, & especially in 
the distant States, if it should be deferred till informa- 
tion is sent to the Executive, and a special order awaited 
to take the depositions, 

I take the liberty of requesting that you will be 
pleased to give such instructions to the Consuls of 
your nation as may facilitate the object of this regula- 
tion. I urge it with the more earnestness, because as 
the Attornies of the districts are for the most part 
engaged in much business of their own, they will rarely 
be able to attend more than one appointment, and 
consequently the party who should fail from negligence 
or other motives to produce his witnesses at the time 
& place appointed, might lose the benefit of their testi- 
mony altogether. This prompt procedure is the more 
to be insisted on as it will enable the President by an 
immediate delivery of the Vessel and Cargo to the 
party having title, to prevent the injuries consequent 
on long delay. 

I have the honor to be with great respect. Sir, 
Your most obedient & 

Most humble servant — 

Th : Jefferson. 



JEFFERSON TO GENERAL KNOX. 

Th : Jefferson presents his compliments to Gen- 
eral Knox, & sends him some papers received last 



54 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

night by the President from the Govr. of North Caro- 
lina, requesting the money & vessel taken from the 
Spaniards by the sloop I'Amee Marguerite (formerly 
the British sloop Providence prisoner to the Vainqueur 
de la Bastille, armed in the U S.) it would seem from 
this as if both vessels should be given up, 
Nov. lo. 1793. 



JEFFERSON TO PETER CARR.* 

Germantown, Nov. 10, 1793. 
Dear Sir 

I received yours of Oct, 22, a little before bed- 
time of the same evening, and being to set out early 
the next morning it was impossible for me to answer 
it. it was the less material, as I had written some 
days before, and left in the hands of Mr. Jeffersonf a 
letter to my sister on the same subject. I had before 
imagined that the present state of her family would 
render it convenient to receive now the money which 
had remained so long in my hands, & which I im- 
agined was till then a convenient occasional resource 

*Peter Carr was a nephew of Jefferson, being the son of his 
sister Martha and Dabney Carr. The latter died in early manhood 
and his widow and her children made their home at Monticello. 

■j-This was George Jefferson, a cousin, living in Richmond, Va. 
He was a man of such high ideals that he refused to be a candidate for 
an office under President Jefferson on account of their relationship. 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS ^^ 

for bad crops, unexpected calls &c. I therefore des- 
tined to discharge it out of the proceeds of an execution 

of Mr. , representives against the estate of Colo. 

Gary, which should have been received in February 

last. Mr. has thro' the summer been giving 

me constant expectations from Carter Page of receiving 
a good part of the money. I flatter myself it cannot 
fail to be received in time for the demands you speak 
of. I have no speedier resource for it, as all others at 
my command will be requisite to clear me out here. 

We may soon ask you how like your new course 
of life, the account I received of your debut in Al- 
bemarle was flattering for you, & very grateful to me. 
I think you have your fortune in your own hands, 
and that nothing is necessary but the will to make it 
what you please, your father's plan of a laborious & 
short course, rather than a languid & long one, was 
certainly the wisest. 1 wish you may adopt the same, 
no one on earth being more anxious for your success 
than, Dear Sir, Yours affectionately 
Mr. P. Carr Th: Jefferson. 



JEFFERSON TO MARTHA JEFFERSON RANDOLPH. 

Germantown, Nov. lo, 1793. 
I wrote, my dear Martha, by last week's post to 
Mr. Randolph. Yesterday I received his of Oct. 31. 



S6 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 



The fever in Philadelphia has almost entirely disap- 
peared. The Physicians say they have no new infec- 
tions since the great rains which have fallen. Some 
previous ones are still to die or recover, and so close 
this tragedy. I think however the Executive will re- 
main here till the meeting of Congress, merely to 
furnish a rally point to them. The refugee inhabitants 
are very generally returning into the city. Mr. T. 
Shippen and his lady are here. He is very slowly 
getting better. Still confined to the house. She well 
& very burly. I told her of her sister's pretentions 
to the fever & ague at Blenheim. She complained of 
receiving no letter. Tell this to Mrs. Carter, making 
it the subject of a visit express, which will be an act of 
good neighbor. — The aflfairs of France are at present 
gloomy. Toulon has surrended to England & Spain. 
So has Grandanse and the country round about in St. 
Domingo. The English however have received a 
check before Dunkirk, probably a smart one,tho' the par- 
ticulars are not yet certainly known. I send Freneau's 
papers. He has discontinued them, but promises to 
resume again. I fear this cannot be till he has collected 
his arrearages. My best regards to Mr. Randolph. 
Accept my warmest love for yourself and Maria, com- 
pliments to Miss. Jane, kisses to the children, friendly 
affections to all. Adieu. 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 57 



JEFFERSON'S DRAFT OF A REPLY TO TRUSTEES OF THE 
SCHOOL AT GERMANTOWN.* 



Gent. 

The readiness with which the Trustees ot the 
school of German, tender the buildings under their 
charge for the use of Congress, is a proof of their 
zeal for furthering the public good. and doubt- 
less the other inhabitants actuated by the same motives 
will feel the same dispons. to accomodate if necessary 
those who assemble but for their service & that of 
their fellow citizens. 

Where it may be best for Congress to remain 
will depend on circumstances which are daily unfold- 
ing themselves, & for the issue of which we can but 
offer up our prayers to the sovereign disposer of life 
& health. 

His favor too on our endeavors, the good sense & 
firmness of our fellow citizens & fidelity in those they 
employ will secure to us a permanence of good gov- 
ernment 



*This is Jefferson's draft of reply to a letter received by the Presi- 
dent from the Trustees of the school. The letter as it was sent fol- 
lows showing that Jefferson or more likely the President added another 
paragraph. 



58 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

WASHINGTON'S COMPLETED LETTER TO THE TRUSTEES,* 

Gentlemen, 

The readiness with which the Trustees of the 
Public School of Germantown tender the buildings 
under their charge, for the use of Congress, is a proof 
of their zeal for furthering the public good ; and 
doubtless the Inhabitants of Germantown generally, 
actuated by the same motives, will feel the same dis- 
positions to accomodate, if necessary, those who as- 
semble but for their service & that of their fellow 
citizens. 

Where it will be best for Congress to remain will 
depend on circumstances which are daily unfolding 
themselves, & for the issue of which, we can but offer 
up our prayers to the Sovereign Dispenser of life & 
health. His favor too on our endeavours — the good 
sense and firmness of our fellow citizens, & fidelity in 

*At eleven o'clock in the morning of Wednesday, November 
6th, the Trustees of the Public School of Germantown, now the 
Germantown Academy, with Henry Hill at their head, waited on the 
President and offered through him the use of their buildings as a meet- 
ing place for Congress. They presented him with an address to 
which the President later sent the reply given above. The question 
as to how much Washington was indebted to Hamilton and Jeffer- 
son in the preparation of state papers and letters is one that has 
been discussed at some length and with some degree of warmth by 
various biographers and historians. 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 59 

those they employ, will secure to us a permanence of 
good government. 

If I have been fortunate enough, during the 
vicissitudes of my life, so to have conducted myself, as 
to have merited your approbation, it is a source of 
much pleasure ; & should my future conduct merit a 
continuance of your good opinion, especially at a time 
when our country, & the city of Philadelphia in par- 
ticular, is visited by so severe a calamity, it will add 
more than a little to my happiness. — 

Go. Washington. 



COMMISSION OF DAVID AUSTIN. 

Germantown Novemr. 11. 1793. 
Sir, 

The President of the United States, desiring to 
avail the public of your services as Collector for the 
Port of New Haven, I have now the honor of inclos- 
ing you the Commission, and of expressing to you the 
Sentiments of perfect Esteem with which I am Sir, 
Your most Obedt. & 
most hum. sert. 
Commission dated Nov. 11. 1793. Th : Jefferson 
Mr. David Austin. 



6o THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 



COMMISSION OF VINCENT GRAY. 

Germantown Novemr. nth. 1793. 
Sir, 

The President of the United States, desiring to 

avail the public of your services as Surveyor for the 

Port of Alexandria, I have now the honor of inclosing 

you the commission, and of expressing to you the 

sentiments of perfect esteem with which I am Sir, 

Your most obedt. & 

most hum. sert. 

Commission dated 11. nov. 1793. Th : Jefferson 

Mr. Vincent Gray. — 



THOMAS JEFFERSON TO DISTRICT ATTORNEYS. 

Germantown, Nov. 11. 1793. 
Sir 

The war at present prevailing among the European 

Powers producing sometimes captures of vessels in the 

neighbourhood of our sea coast and the law of nations 

admitting as a common convenience that every nation 

inhabiting the sea coast may extend its jurisdiction & 

protection some distance into the sea, the President 

has been frequently appealed to by the subjects of the 

belligerent Powers for the benefit of that protection. 

To what distance from the coast this may be extended 

is not precisely ascertained either by the practice or 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 6i 



consent of nations or the opinions of the jurists who 
have written on the subject. The greatest distance to 
which any respectable assent seems to have been given, 
is the extent of the human sight, estimated at some- 
thing more than 20 miles. The least claimed by any 
nation is the utmost range of cannon shot, usually 
stated at one sea league, or three sea miles which is a 
very small portion less than 31^ statute or american 
miles. Several intermediate distances have been insisted 
on under different circumstances, & that particularly of 
3 sea leagues has the support of some authorities which 
are recent. However as the nations which practice 
navigation on our coast are interested in this question, 
it is thought prudent not to assume the whole distance 
which we may reasonably claim, until some opportunity 
shall occur of entering into friendly explanations and 
arrangements with them on the subject, but as in the 
mean time it is necessary to exercise the right to some 
distance, the President has though it best, so far as 
shall concern the exercise of the executive Powers, to take 
the distance of a sea league, which being fitted by treaty 
between some of the belligerent Powers, and as little 
as any of them claim on their own coasts, can admit of 
no reasonable opposition on their part. The executive 
officers are therefore instructed to consider a margin of 
one sea league on our coast as that within which all hos- 



62 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

tilities are interdicted for the present, until it shall be 
otherwise signified to them. The rivers and bays as 
being land locked, are of course by the law of nations, 
and I presume by the laws of most of the states, within 
the body of the United States, and under the same 
protection from hostilities. 

As the question whether a capture has been made 
within these limits is a question of fact to be decided 
by witnesses, it becomes necessary to take measures for 
the examination of these witnesses in the different states 
where captures may happen, and the laws of the union 
having as yet made no provision for this purpose, the 
President considers the attornies of the several Districts 
as the persons the most capable of discharging the 
office with knowledge, with impartiality, and with that 
extreme discretion which is essential in all matters 
wherein foreign nations are concerned. I have the 
honor therefore. Sir, to inclose you a paper expressing 
the desire of the President on this subject — You will 
see by that that whenever a capture is suggested to 
have been made within the limits above mentioned, 
so far as they are within your state, the Governor to 
whom the first application will be made is desired to 
give you notice thereof, whereupon it is hoped you will 
proceed as the paper points out. The representatives 
here of the different Powers are informed of this ar- 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 63 



rangement, and desired to instruct their consuls to 

facilitate the proceedings as far as shall depend on 

them; and it is unnecessary for me to suggest what 

your own judgment and disposition would dictate that 

the same object will be promoted by a certain degree 

of respect to which the Consuls are entitled, and a just 

and friendly attention to their convenience. 

I have the honor to be with sentiments of respect 

Sir, 

Your most obedt. servt. 

Th : Jefferson 

TENCH COXE TO THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Mr. T. Coxe requests that Mr. Jefferson will do 
him the honor to inform him, whether it appears by 
the records of the Department of State that a com- 
mission, as Inspector of the Revenue for the port of 
Bake., has been transmitted to Danl. Delogier, lately 
appointed Surveyor of that port. Mr. Coxe can not 
find that such a commission has ever been reed, by the 
officer, or by the Treasury. In the confusion produced 
by the late malady in Philada. it is possible it may not 
have occurd. that two Commissions were necessary. 
The late Mr. Ballard held both, and it has been almost 
an universal course in the appointments to those two 
offices in the other ports. 
Chestnut Street Novr. nth. 1793. 



64 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

THOMAS JEFFERSON TO ROBERT MORRIS. 

Germantown, Nov. 13. 1793. 



S 



ir 



I am instructed by the President of the US. to 
forward to you the inclosed petition* from Ezra Fitz 
Freeman, on behalf of his son Clarkson Freeman, and 
to ask the favor of your information of the circum- 
stances of the case of the sd. Clarkson Freeman therein 
referred to, & your opinion on the different considera- 
tions weighing for and against the pardon therein 
prayed for. I have the honor to be with great respect 

Sir 

Your most obedt. 

& most humble servt. 
To honble. Robert Morris Th : Jefferson 

the District judge of the US. for N. Jersey. 



JEFFERSON TO PATRICK KENNON. 

Germantown, Nov. 13, 1793. 
Sir 

I have duly received your favor of Sept. 19. with 

the copy of your account shewing the amount of stock 

*This was a petition from Clarkson Freeman, who had been 
imprisoned in New Jersey for aiding in counterfeiting public securities. 
He had fled to Canada and asked to be pardoned and allowed to return 
to his home. Judge Morris replied November 25th, representing 
Freeman's conduct in an unfavorable light. 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 6s 

which you hold for Mr. Short, as also a balance of 
50.17 cash and a further sum of 100.83 ^^^ quarter's 
interest then due. finding that Mr. Short possesses 
stock in Richmond also, & concluding it best to bring 
the whole to Philadelphia, I have lodged in the Treas- 
ury office there the original power of attorney under 
which I act for Mr. Short,* & of which, for your justi- 
fication, 1 send you a copy authenticated by the 
Secretary of the Treasury, and have now to ask the 
favor of you to apply to the office of the Commission- 
ers of loans at New York, and to have the necessary 
acts done there and forwarded here, for transferring 
the said stock from the banks of that office to those of 
the general office here, with as little delay as possible, 
and to remit to me the two sums of cash above men- 
tioned in safe paper, on the receipt of which I will send 
you a sufficient voucher. 

I am with esteem Sir 

Your most obedt. sert 

Th : Jefferson. 
Mr. Patrick Kennon. New York. 



*WilHam Short had been private secretary to JefFerson while the 
latter was minister to France. After Jefferson's return he had re- 
mained as charge d' affaires, but later he had been appointed minister 
at The Hague. 



66 THE GERMANTOJVN LETTERS 

JEFFERSON TO MR. HOPKINS. 

Germantown, Nov. 13, 1793. 
Sir 

Your favor of the 1 5th of October with the state- 
ments of the different species of stock standing on the 
books of your office to the credit of WilHam Short es- 
quire, came to hand on the 24th of the same month, 
being the eve of my departure for this place, finding 
that Mr. Short has stock also at New York, I have 
thought it best to bring the whole to one place, & that, 
all circumstances considered, Philadelphia will be the 
best place of deposit, having therefore lodged in the 
Treasury office there the original power of attorney 
under which I act for Mr. Short, and of which, for 
your justification I send you a copy authenticated by 
the Secretary of the Treasury, I have now to ask the 
favor of you to do what is necessary & proper to be 
done on your part for transferring all Mr. Short's stock 
on your books to those of the Treasury at Philadel- 
phia, should the certificates be in the hands of Mr. 
Brown, will you have the goodness to ask for them & 
to forward them or any other papers to me which may 
be necessary to complete the operation herewith as little 
delay as possible? your attention herein will oblige Sir 

Your most obedt. sert 

Th : Jefferson. 

Mr. Hopkins, Commr. of loans, Richmd. 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 67 



JEFFERSON TO MR. HOMASSEL. 

Germantown, Nov. 13, 1793. 
Sir 

Mr. DeVieux, my neighbor in Virginia having 
received information that some goods were sent for 
him from France to this port, authorised Mr. Vaughan 
to receive & sell them, he afterwards learnt they had 
been sent to you, and now understands they were sold 
by you. it is very important to him to receive the 
money, but more pressingly so to know the clear 
amount of the sales, that he may by that clear amount 
regulate his engagements, not knowing to what place 
Mr. Vaughan retired on the late disorder in Philadel- 
phia, I ask the favor of you to enable me if you can 
to inform Mr. DeVieux of the nett amount of the 
whole sum which will be coming to him from the sale 
of the said goods. 

I am sir 

Your very humble sert 

Th : Jefferson. 
Mr. Homassel. 



68 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

JEFFERSON TO GEORGE HAMMOND.* 

Germantown Nov. 13. 1793. 
Sir 

In a letter which I had the honor of addressing 

you on the 19th of June last, I asked for information 
when we might expect an answer to that which I had 
written you on the 29th of May was twelvemonth, on 
the articles still unexecuted of the treaty of peace be- 
tween the two nations. 

In your answer of the next day, you were pleased 
to inform me that you had forwarded the letter of the 
29th of May 1792. in the course of a few days after 
it's date, & that you daily expected instructions on the 

*The answer to the above is as follows : 

Lansdown, 2 2d November, 1793. 
Sir, 

In answer to your letter of the 13 th current, I have the honor ot 
informing you, that I have not yet received such definite instructions, 
relative to your communication of the 29th of May, 1792, as will 
enable me immediately to renew the discussions upon the subject of it, 
which have been for some time suspended. 

I can, however, repeat with confidence, my conviction, that the 
continuance of the cause, to which I alluded in my letter of the 20th 
of June last, and no other, has protracted this delay to the present period. 
I have the honor to be. 

With sentiments of great respect. 
Sir, 
Your most obedient, 
humble servant, 

Geo : Hammond 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 69 

subject ; that you presumed these had been delayed in 
consequence of the very interesting events which had 
occurred in Europe & which had been of a nature so 
pressing and important as probably to have attracted 
the whole attention of your ministers, & thus to have 
diverted it from objects more remote, & that might 
perhaps have been regarded as somewhat less urgent. 

I have it again in charge from the President of 
the United States to ask whether we can now have an 
answer to the letter of May 29. before mentioned ? 

I have the honor to be with great respect Sir 

Your most obedient 

& most humble servt 

Th : Jefferson 
The Minister Pleny. of Gr. Britain. 



JEFFERSON TO GOVERNOR MOULTRIE.* 

Germantown Nov. 13. 1793. 
Sir 

In a letter of the 2d. instant which I have re- 
ceived from Mr. Genet, Minister Plenipy. of the re- 
public of France here, is the following paragraph. 

" I have received a charge against two persons of 

*Governor William Moultrie of South Carolina. 



70 THE GERMANTOJVN LETTERS 

the name of Bouteille and Carvin, as equipping at this 
time in Charleston a strong vessel, on which they are 
to embark a number of people whose object is to go & 
posess themselves of Turtle island, distant from the 
Cape seven leagues, and there to put to death all the 
French who shall remain faithful to their country. I 
pray you to be so good as to inform the Governor of 
Charleston of this accusation." 

The same line of conduct being proper for us be- 
tween parties of the same nation engaged in civil war, 
as between different nations at war with each other, I 
have it in charge from the President of the US. to 
draw your Excellency's attention to the information 
above stated, & to express his confidence that you will 
exert the powers with which you are invested to pre- 
vent every preparation of hostilities which shall be 
attempted to be made and carried on from any part of 
your state against countries or people with which we 
are at peace, and I will ask the favor of any informa- 
tion you may be able to give me of the fact above 
stated, and it's issue. I have the honor to be with 
great respect, your Excellency's 

most obedt. & most humble sert 
H.E. Governor Moultrie. Th : Jefferson 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 71 



JEFFERSON TO COLONEL ROBERT GAMBLE.* 

Th : Jefferson presents his compliments to Colo. 
Gamble & takes the liberty of putting under cover to 
him a letter to Mr. Newbernf of Richmond, with a 
request to have it handed him if he arrived from Lon- 
don, or if not, to let it lie by, till his arrival. Th : J. 
thinks he must be arrived as he sailed from London 
Aug. 30. he has the pleasure to inform Colo. Gamble 
that after the great rains which fell the first three or 
four days of this month, not a single new infection of 
the yellow fever took place, that those then ill of it are 
either dead or recovered, and that there is the most 
respectable assurance that there is not at this time a 
single subject remaining under that disorder, the 
refugee inhabitants have been returning in to the city 
ever since the rain, without incurring any accident, 
some who had returned before the rains caught the 
disease, it is probable that in the course of this week 
or the next 99. out of 100. of those who had left the 
city, will be returned into it. as the members of 
Congress, coming from a distance, may be uninformed 

*An answer to this letter will be found on a subsequent page. 

Colonel Robert Gamble was a Revolutionary soldier who came 
originally from Staunton, Augusta County, and thus in a way a 
neighbor of Jefferson's. In 1793 he removed to Richmond and be- 
came a prominent merchant of that city. He was killed in 18 10 by 
a fall from his horse. 

•j-See the following letter. 



72 THE GERMANTOJVN LETTERS 

of the real state of things, the President will probably 
remain here (tho' he has been into the city) to form a 
point of union for them to assemble at & decide on 
their own view of things. J 

Germantown, Nov. 14, 1793. 



JEFFERSON TO MR. NEWBERN, 

Germantown near Philadelphia, Nov, 14, 1793. 
Sir 

Mr. Donald of London, in a letter of Aug. 30. 

informs me you had been so kind as to take charge of 
a telescope for me. not knowing whether you are yet 
arrived, and apprehending, if you were, that you might 
forward the glass on to this place, I take the liberty of 
lodging the present letter at Richmond, to desire you, 
instead of sending it on here to deliver it to Mr. Ran- 
dolph my son in law whenever he may happen to be 
in Richmond, or to his order, any duty or other charge 
which may have been paid on it shall be thankfully re- 
paid as soon as made known, returning you many 
thanks for the obliging office you have done, I remain 

with esteem Sir 

Your most obedt. sert. 
Mr. Newbern. Th: Jefferson. 

|The information contained in this letter was deemed of such 
public interest that it, except the first few lines, was printed in the 
Virginia Chronicle of November 30th, 1793. 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 73 

JEFFERSON TO WILLIAM AST. 

Germantown near Philadelphia, Nov. 14, 1793. 

Sir 

Your favor of the 6th inst, conveys to me the 

first information of your establishment in this country, 
in which I wish you every success, with respect to 
the application you propose to Congress on the subject 
of insurances, I am not able to say what may be its 
effect, we are little habituated to these speculations 
here, & therefore the less likely to estimate their true 
value, instead however of asking a provisional decree, 
which is not consonant with our usage, I would advise 
you to propose, in your petition, the communication of 
your plan to such committee of their house as they 
shall appoint, these will of course be persons of con- 
fidence, & on their report the house will act. I would 
also recommend to you to have your petition drawn by 
some gentleman of the law, who is acquainted with our 
forms, since it is of considerable advantage to good 
ideas to be presented to those for whom they are in- 
tended in a dress to which they are accustomed, as I 
mean shortly to retire to Virginia and shall chiefly be 
connected with Richmond in such matters of business 
as a farmer may have, I shall hope an opportunity of 
renewing my acquaintance with you there, unless your 
movements should sooner lead you into the neighbor- 



74 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

hood of Monticello, where I shall be very happy to 
see you; accept assurances of my attachment. 

Th: Jefferson. 

Mr. William Ast. 



JEFFERSON TO PATRICK HART. 

Germantown near Philadelphia, Nov. 14, 1793. 
Sir 

Understanding that there was a box containing an 

Orrery for me at the Custom-house at the Hundred, 
I had asked the favor of Mr. David Randolph to take 
it out and pay the duty, which I suppose small, as the 
machine cost but about 2^2 guineas, he writes me 
word that before he received my letter, you had been 
so kind as to liberate it from the custom-house, with 
a view of sending it on to me. the object of this let- 
ter is to return you my thanks for this kind attention, 
and instead of forwarding it to me here, to ask you to 
be so good as to deliver it to Mr. Randolph my son 
in law, to be forwarded to my own house in Albemarle 
where I shall be within a few weeks, be pleased at the 
same time to let either him or me know what you have 
been so good as to pay on it, and it will be immediately 
replaced, with repeated thanks for the civility, I am 

with esteem, Sir 

Your most obedt. sert 

Mr. Patrick Hart. Th : Jefferson. 



THE GERMANTOfVN LETTERS js 

JEFFERSON TO GIUSEPPE CERACCHI.* 

Philadelphia, Nov. 14. 1793. 
Dear Sir 

I have received the favor of your letter of May 

27. from Munich, & it was not till then that I knew 
to what place or through what channel to direct a let- 
ter to you. the assurances you received that the mon- 
ument of the President would be ordered at the new 
election, were founded in the expectation that he meant 
then to retire, the turbid affairs of Europe however, 
& the intercessions they produced prevailed on him to 
act again, tho' with infinite reluctance. You are sen- 
sible that the moment of his retirement, kindling the 
enthusiasm for his character, the affections for his 
person, the recollection of his services, would be that 
moment in which such a tribute would naturally be 
resolved on. this of course is now put off the end of 
the next bissextile : but whenever it arrives, your title 
to the execution is engraved in the minds of those 
who saw your works here, your purpose with respect 
to my bust is certainly flattering to me. my family 

*For an interesting account of the sculptor Ceracchi and his 
desire to execute a monument of Washington commemorative of 
the Revolution, see Randall's life of Jefferson, Vol. 11, page 199. 
The artist chiseled a magnificent bust of Jefferson, which was obtained 
by Congress, placed in its library and afterwards destroyed by the fire 
of 1 85 1. Unfortunately there is no existing engraving or other 
reproduction of this beautiful bust. 



76 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

has entered so earnestly into It that I must gratify them 
with the hope, and myself with the permission to make 
a just indemnification to the author. I shall be happy 
at all times to hear from you, and to learn that your 
successes in life are as great as they ought to be. ac- 
cept assurances of my sincere respect & esteem. 

Th : Jefferson 
Mr. Ceracchi, at Munich. 



JEFFERSON TO GEORGE HAMMOND. 

Germantown Nov. 14. 1793. 
Sir, 

I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter 

of the 7th. instant, on the subject of the British ship 
Rochampton, taken and sent into Baltimore by the 
French privateer the Industry, an armed schooner of 
St. Domingo, which is suggested to have augmented her 
force at Baltimore before the capture. On this circum- 
stance a demand is grounded that the prize she has 
made shall be restored. 

Before I proceed to the matters of fact in this case, 
I will take the liberty of calling your attention to the 
rules which are to govern it. These are 

1st. That restitution of prizes has been made by 
the Executive of the United States only in the two cases 
I. of capture, within their Jurisdiction, by armed vessels 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 



11 



originally constituted such without the limits of the 
United States; or 2d. of capture, either within or with- 
out their jurisdiction, by armed vessels, originally con- 
stituted such within the limits of the United States, 
which last have been called proscribed vessels. 

iind. That all military equipments within the 
ports of the United States are forbidden to the vessels 
of the Belligerent powers, even where they have been 
constituted vessels of war before their arrival in our 
ports; and where such equipments have been made 
before detection, they are ordered to be suppressed 
when detected, and the vessel reduced to her original 
condition. But if they escape detection altogether, 
depart and make prizes, the Executive has not under- 
taken to restore the prizes. 

With due care, it can scarcely happen that mili- 
tary equipments of any magnitude shall escape discov- 
ery, those which are small may sometimes, perhaps, 
escape, but to pursue these so far as to decide that the 
smallest circumstance of military equipment to a vessel 
in our ports shall invalidate her prizes through all 
time, would be a measure of incalculable consequences. 
And since our interference must be governed by some 
general rule, and between great and small equipments 
no practicable line of distinction can be drawn, it will 
be attended with less evil on the whole to rely on the 



78 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

efficacy of the means of prevention, that they will 
reach with certainty equipments of any magnitude and 
the great mass of those of smaller importance also : 
and if some should in the event, escape all our vigi- 
lance, to consider these as of the number of cases 
which will at times baffle the restraints of the wisest 
and best guarded rules which human foresight ever 
devise. And I think we may safely rely that since the 
regulations which got into a course of execution about 
the middle of August last, it is scarcely possible that 
equipmentsof any importance should escape discovery. 

These principles shewing that no demand of 
restitution lies on the ground of a mere military alter- 
ation or an augmentation of force, I will consider your 
letter only as a complaint that the orders of the Presi- 
dent prohibiting these, have not had their effect in the 
case of the Industry, and inquire whether, if this be 
so, it has happened either from neglect or connivance 
in those charged with the execution of these orders. 
For this we must resort to facts which shall be taken 
from the evidence furnished by yourself, and the 
British vice Consul at Baltimore, and from that which 
shall accompany this leter. 

About the beginning of August the Industry is 
said to have arrived at Baltimore with the French fleet 
from St. Domingo, the particular state of her arma- 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 79 

ment on her arrival is lately questioned, but it is not 
questioned, that she was an armed vessel of some 
degree. The Executive having received an intimation 
that two vessels were equipping themselves at Balti- 
more for a cruize, a letter was on the 5th. of Augt. 
addressed by the Secretary of war to the Governor of 
Maryland, desiring an inquiry into the fact. In his 
absence, the Executive Council of Maryland charged 
one of their own Party, the honorable Mr. Killy, with 
the inquiry. He proceeded to Baltimore, and after two 
days examination found no vessels answering the 
description of those which were the objects of his in- 
quiry. He then engaged the British Vice Consul in 
the search, who was not able, any more than himself 
to discover any such vessels. Captain Killy, however, 
observing a Schooner, which appeared to have been 
making some equipments for a cruize to have added 
to her guns, and made some alteration to her waist, 
thought these circumstances merited examination, 
though the rules of August had not yet appeared. 
Finding that his inquiries excited suspicion, and fear- 
ing the vessel might be withdrawn, he had her seized, 
and proceeded in the investigation. He found that 
she was the Schooner Industry, Captain Carver, from 
St. Domingo, that she had been an armed vessel 
for three years before her coming here, and as late as 



8o THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

April last had mounted i6 Guns, that she now mounted 
only 12. and he could not learn that she had pro- 
cured any of these or done any thing else, essential to 
her as a prisoner, at Baltimore. He therefore dis- 
charged her, and on the 23d. of August, the Executive 
Council made the report to the Secretary at war, of 
which I enclose you a copy. 

About a fortnight after this (Sep. 6.) you added 
to a letter on other business a short paragraph saying 
that you had lately received information that a vessel 
named the Industry had within the last 5 or 6 weeks 
been armed, manned, and equipped in the port of Bal- 
timore. The proceedings before mentioned having 
been in another department, were not then known to 
me. I therefore could only communicate this para- 
graph to the proper Department. The separation of the 
Executive within a week after prevented any explana- 
tions on the subject ; and without them it was not in 
my power either to controvert or admit the information 
you had received. Under these circumstances I think 
you must be sensible. Sir, that your conclusions from 
my silence, that I regarded the fact as proved, was not 
a very necessary one. 

New inquiries, at that time, could not have pre- 
vented the departure of the privateer, or the capture of 
the Rochampton ; for the privateer had then been out 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 8i 

some time, the Rochampton was already taken and 
was arriving at Baltimore ; which she did about the day 
of the date of your letter, after her arrival, new wit- 
nesses had come forward to prove that the Industry 
had made some military equipments at Baltimore be- 
fore her cruise, the affidavits taken by the British 
Vice Consul are dated about 9 or lo days after the 
date of your letter and arrival of the Roechampton : 
and we have only to lament that those witnesses had 
not given their information to the Vice Consul when 
Mr. Killy engaged his aid in the inquiries he was 
making, and when it would have had the effect of our 
detaining the privateer till she should have reduced 
herself to the condition in which she was when she 
arrived in our ports, if she had really added any thing 
to her then force. But supposing the testimony just 
and full (tho' taken ex parte^ and not under the legal 
sanction of an oath) yet the Governor's refusal to re- 
store the prize, was perfectly proper, for, as has been 
before observed, restitution has never been made by the 
Executive, nor can be made on a mere clandestine 
alteration or augmentation of military equipment, which 
was all that the new testimony tended to prove. 

Notwithstanding, however that the President 
thought the information obtained on a former occasion 
had cleared this privateer from any well grounded cause 



82 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

of arrest, yet that which you have now offered opens 
a possibiHty that the former was defective. He has 
therefore desired new inquiry to be made before a 
magistrate legally authorized to administer an Oath, 
and indifferent to both parties, and should the result 
be that the vessel did really make any military equip- 
ments in our ports, instructions will be given to re- 
duce her to her original conditions, whenever she shall 
again come into our ports. 

On the whole, Sir, I hope you will perceive that 
on the first intimation, thro' their own channels, and 
without waiting for information on your part, that a 
vessel was making military equipments at Baltimore, 
the Executive took the best measures for inquiring 
into the fact in order to prevent or suppress such equip- 
ments, that an officer of high respectability was 
charged with the inquiry and that he made it with 
great diligence himself, and engaged similar inquiries 
on the part of your Vice Consul, that neither of them 
could find that this privateer had made any such equip- 
ments, or of course that there was any ground for re- 
ducing or detaining her ; that at the date of your letter 
of Sep. 6 (the first intimation reed, from you) the Pri- 
vateer was departed, had taken her prize, and that prize 
was arriving in port, that the new evidence taken lo 
days after that arrival can produce no other effect than 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 83 

the institution of a new inquiry, and a reduction of the 
force of the privateer, should she appear to have made 
any military alterations or augmentations, on her re- 
turn into our ports, and that in no part of this procedure 
is there the smallest ground for imparting either negli- 
gence or connivance to any of the officers who have 
acted in it. 

I have the honor to be, with much respect 
Sir, 

Your most obedient and 

most humble servant, 

Th : Jefferson 
Minister plenipo. of Great Britian. 



JEFFERSON TO DAVID HOWELL. 

Germantown, Nov. 14, 1793. 
Dear Sir 

I have duly received your two favors of Octob. 
3. & 4. with that signed by Messrs. Brown & others.* 
I have communicated the contents to the President, 
and added my own testimony, derived from former 
acquaintance, to the recommendations of those gentle- 

*A petition from John Brown and other citizens, recommend- 
ing the appointment of David Howell as District Attorney for Rhode 
Island as successor to William Channing. 



84 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

men. no appointment is as yet made, and the Presi- 
dent is absent on a short tour. In this as in every 
other pursuit, I sincerely wish you success, and shall 
be greeted with the tidings of it in the retirement into 
which I mean to withdraw at the close of the present 
year, it will be the second time my bark will have 
put into port with a design not to venture out again ; 
& I trust it will be the last, my farm, my family & 
my books call me to them irresistably. I do not know 
whether you are a farmer, but I know you love your 
family & your books, and will therefore bear witness 
to the strength of their attractions, accept assurances 

of my constant esteem & respect. 

Th : Jefferson. 
David Howell esq. Providence. 



JEFFERSON TO WILLIAM RAWLE. 

Germantown Nov. 15. 1793. 
Sir, 

You will doubtless recollect the case of the British 

ship William, taken by the Privateer Citoyen Genet, 

before the 5th. of June and within the limits of our 

Jurisdiction, as was alleged. On this allegation she 

was libelled in the district Court of Pennsylvania, and 

discharged by the Judge on the ground of incompetence 

of Jurisdiction. It then became the duty of the Ex- 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 85 

ecutive to interfere. The British Minister exhibited 
affidavits taken exparte which gave reason to believe 
that the capture was made within our jurisdiction, and 
the french Minister was desired to shew cause against 
it, the vessel being in the mean time put into the 
Hands of the French Consul, in an assurance that she 
should be forth coming to answer the determination 
of the President. The French Minister has now 
given in contrary evidence, but taken ex parte also. 
The limits of Jurisdiction having been provisionally- 
settled for Executive cases, and the mode of taking 
regular testimony, as stated in the letter I had the 
honor of writing you on the loth. instant, I have now 
to ask the favor of you to proceed with respect to the 
ship William according to what was provided in that 
letter for such cases generally. By a letter of the 
present date I notify the two Ministers of the reference 
now made to you, relying that they will instruct their 
Consuls to pay requisite attention to it. 

I have the honor to be with great esteem 
Sir, 

Your most obedient and 

most humble servant 
Wm. Rawle Esq. Th : Jefferson 

Attorney of the U. S. for the district of 

Penna. 



86 THE GERMANTOJVN LETTERS 

JEFFERSON TO GEORGE HAMMOND. 

Germantown Nov. 15. 1793. 
Sir, 

I have the honor to inform you that the district 

Attorney of Pennsylvania is this day instructed to take 
measures for finally settling the cases of the British Ship 
William captured by the French privateer the Citoyen 
Genet, and reclaimed (?) as taken within the Jurisdic- 
tion of the United States, in which he will proceed as 
I had the honor of stating to you in my letter of Nov. 
10. 

I have the honor of being with respect & esteem Sir, 

Your most obdt. 
mo. humble servant 

Th : Jefferson 
The Minister plenipy. of Gt. Britain. 



JEFFERSON TO EDMOND C. GENET. 

Th : Jefferson with his respectful compHments to 
Mr. Genet has the honor to inform him that his letter 
of the 3d. inst. on the subject of an advance of money, 
came to hand on the day the President had set out on 
a journey to Reading, that of yesterday, on the same 
subject, is received this day. both shall be laid before 
him on his return. 
Nov. 15. 1793. Germantown. 



THE GERMANTOfVN LETTERS 87 

JEFFERSON TO GENERAL HENRY KNOX. 

Th : Jefferson, with his respect to Genl Knox, has the 
honor to inclose for his examination & amendmt. a letter 
to Mr Hammond on the subject of the Rochampton, 
which has already been examined & approved by the 
Secy, of the Treasury & Atty. Genl. should Genl. 
Knox propose no amendment, Th: J. will be obliged 
to him to stick a wafer in the cover, & send it on to 
the post office, should he think it of any consequence 
to send a copy to Govr. T. Lee, in order to explain to 
him & the council the reason of the new enquiries to 
be made into the condition of the Industry, Genl. Knox's 
clerk shall have the press copy retained here, to take 
a copy from, 
Nov. 15. 1793. 

After writing the above & inclosing the letter to 
Mr. H. it was recollected that Genl. Knox was to set 
out this day Friday for Trenton, this note was there- 
fore opened & the letter sent to Mr. Hammond, to 
avoid the delay which would be occasioned [the rest 
of the manuscript is torn off.] 



JEFFERSON TO WASHINGTON. 



Th: Jefferson with his respects to the President 
has the honor to inclose for his information the follow- 



88 THE GERMJNTOIVN LETTERS 

ing letters written in consequence of the last consult- 
ation preceding his departure, there being quadrupli- 
cates of most of them, the trouble of looking over them 
will be proportionably diminished to the President. 
Nov. 8. four letters to the foreign ministers on the ex- 
tent of our jurisdiction. 
lO. Circular to the district-attornies on the same 
subject and on the mode of settling the cases 
which arise, 
do. four letters to the foreign ministers on the 
mode of settling the cases which arise of cap- 
tures within our jurisdiction 

*do. to Messrs. Viar & Jaudenes, covering answer 
of Govr. of Kentucky as to military enter- 
prises projected there, & the information of 
the Govr. of N. Carolina as to the Spanish 
prize carried in there. 
X 13. to Mr. Hammond on the inexecution of the 

treaty. 
X to Govr Moultrie, on Mr. Genet's suggestion of 
military enterprises projected 

* to Judge Morris, inclosing Fitz Freeman's 
petition. 

14. to Mr. Hammond on the Rochampton & 
Industry. 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 8g 

to the District Atty. of Maryland on the 

brig Coningham. 
to do. on the condemnation of the Rochamp- 

ton & Pilgrim by the Fr. Consul. 
15. to do. of Pennsylva. on the Ship William. 

to Mr. Genet, on same subject 

to Mr. Hammond on same subject. 



* these are subjects not referred to our consultations. 

X these were in consequence of determination at our 
consultations, but the letters, being in plain 
cases, were not communicated for inspection 
to the other gentlemen, after they were 
written, 
there are some other letters agreed on, but not yet 
copied. 



go THE GERMANTOJVN LETTERS 

JEFFERSON TO ELI WHITNEY.* 

Germantown, Nov. i6, 1793. 
Sir, — Your favor of Oct. 15 inclosing a drawing of 
your cotton gin, was received on the 6th inst. The 
only requisite of the law now uncomplied with is the 
forwarding a model, which being received your patent 
may be made out & delivered to your order im- 
mediately. 

As the state of Virginia, of which I am, carries 
on household manufactures of cotton to a great extent, 
as I also do myself, and one of our great embarrass- 
ments is the clearing the cotton of the seed, I feel a 

*JefFerson is universally recognized as the father of the patent 
system of the United States, and this letter, together with the reply 
of Whitney given on a later page, is of unusual interest. 

The original act creating what is now the Patent Office provided 
that the Secretary of State, the Secretary at War and the Attorney 
General should constitute a board to pass upon the invention and issue 
the patent. This no doubt proved a cumbersome arrangement for in 
February 1793, a new law was enacted giving the power of 
issuing patents to the Secretary of State alone, who submitted the 
papers when they were prepared to the Attorney General. If he 
found them conformable to the law, he returned the patent to the 
Secretary of State, who presented the document to the President for 
his signature, and afterwards affixed the official seal. The inventor 
was required to produce a model provided the Secretary asked for it. 
As will be seen, Jefferson did ask for the model of the cotton gin. 
This patent was issued to Whitney, March 14th, 1794. During the 
year 1793 twenty patents had been issued. 



THE GERMANTOJVN LETTERS 91 

considerable interest in the success of your invention, 
for family use. Permit me therefore to ask informa- 
tion from you on these points. Has the machine 
been thoroughly tried in the ginning of cotton, or is it 
as yet but a machine of theory ? What quantity of 
cotton has it cleaned on an average of several days, & 
worked by hand, & by how many hands ? What will 
be the cost of one of them made to be worked by 
hand ? Favorable answers to these questions would 
induce me to engage one of them to be forwarded to 
Richmond for me. Wishing to hear from you on the 
subject I am &c. 

P. S. Is this the machine advertised the last 
year by Pearce at the Patterson manufactory ? 



JEFFERSON TO GEORGE TAYLOR. 

T\\ : Jefferson presents his compliments to Mr. 
Taylor, thinking it possible that the members of 
Congress, retaining the horrors of the yellow fever 
which prevail at a distance, may remove to Lancaster, 
& on so short notice as to prevent Th : J. from set- 
tling his affairs in Philadelphia, to which place he 
should not return again, Lancaster being so far on his 
way home, he thinks it best to do that while he has 
time, & for that purpose it would be convenient for 



92 THE GERMANTOJVN LETTERS 

him to command his salary of the present quarter, as 
the rules of the bank require an endorser he begs the 
favor of Mr. Taylor to endorse the inclosed note for 
him, and to put it under cover to Mr. Kean, with 
the note directed to him, & to send it to him im- 
mediately. 

Th : J. had received Mr. Wythe's money, on 
which fund he will furnish office expenses here.* 
Germantown Nov. i6, 1793. 

Nov. 18, 1703. 
Sixty days after date 

I promise to pay to George Taylor or 
order eight hundred & seventy five doUarsf at the 
bank of the United States for value received 

Th : Jefferson. 



*For a list of the expenses in Germantown see the extracts from 
Jefferson's financial diary given on a later page. 

fThe salary of the Secretary of State at this time was ^3500.00 
per annum, the amount stated in the note would therefore be payment 
for the last three months of Jefferson's term of service as he retired 
December 3 i st. 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS <^2> 

JEFFERSON TO JOHN KEAN* 

Th : Jefferson presents his compliments to Mr. 
Kean & congratulates him sincerely on his and Mrs. 
Kean's having escaped the dangers of the season. 

Thinking it possible that the members of Con- 
gress (retaining the horrors of the yellow fever which 
prevail at a distance) may remove to Lancaster, & on 
so short notice as to prevent Th : J. from settling his 
affairs in Philadelphia, he thinks it best to do that 
while he has time, & for that purpose it would be con- 
venient for him to command his salary of the present 
quarter, he therefore begs the favor of Mr. Kean to 
put the note which accompanies this note into the 
proper channel for discount ; and if he will be so kind, 
when it is decided on, as to send a line of information 
tor Th : J. to his office on Market street he will be 
much obliged to him. 

Will the form of this note render an order from 
Mr. Taylor requisite to authorize Th : J. to receive 
the money .'' 

Germantown Nov. i6. 1793. 



*From the original letter in the Lenox Library, New York city. 
John Kean was cashier of the Bank of the United States. 



94 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 



JEFFERSON TO HERMAN LE ROY* 

Germantown Nov. 17. 1793. 
Dear Sir 

I have duly received your favor of the 13th and 
learn from it a very different state of things from what 
either my son in law or myself were apprized of. 
however, tho' the debt be much greater than I had 
understood, the coupling of Dover in the mortgage is 
a more than proportionate increase of the security, 
all I have therefore to wish at present is that the pro- 
ceeds of the protested bill may be first applied in 
diminution of the debt, and Dover be applied before 

*From the original in the possession of the Pennsylvania Historical 
Society. The letter is addressed to Mr. Herman Le Roy, New 
York, and is indorsed "Thomas Jefferson. Dated 17 Novem'r. 
Receiv'd 22 do. Ans'd 26 do." 

Herman Le Roy was the founder of the once noted New York 
house of Le Roy, Bayard & Co. He was the Consular Agent for the 
Netherlands for New York and New Jersey from 1789 to 1795. 
His daughter, Caroline, was the second wife of Daniel Webster. 

This letter relates to a loan obtained in 1790 from Nicholas and 
Jacob Van Staphorst, bankers of Amsterdam, to whom Jefferson wrote 
February 28, 1790, stating the need of funds to develop his farms, 
offering them his bond for the loan and to pay interest at 6 % . Le Roy 
and Bayard in New York City, apparently had charge of the matter 
and the correspondence with them reveals the fact that as late as 1823 
money was still due to the Van Staphorsts and the presumption is it 
was this debt. 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 95 

Varina* be called on, in which case the latter will be 
safe, as Dover will sell for the double of the residue of 
the debt, after the proceeds of the protested bill shall 
have been applied to it's diminution, in the mean 
time I advise my son in law to consign his wheat to 
you, and to proceed in providing all the monies he 
can in your hands, to remain there as his separate 
property, subject to be hereafter declared by him to 
have been a paiment at the time in exoneration of 
Varina specially, or to any other order of his. this 
appears to me his safest course, relying at the same 
time on your indulgence by directing your agent to 
draw his paiment from the protested bill & Dover as 
far as they will go, & before he proceeds to levy them 
on Varina. I am with great regard and with my most 
friendly respects to mr. Bayard, Dear Sir 

Your most obedt sevt 
Mr. Le Roy. Th : Jefferson 



*Varina was an extensive plantation belonging to Thomas Mann 
Randolph, located a few miles below Richmond. 



96 THE GERMANTOmN LETTERS 

JEFFERSON TO JAMES MADISON. 

Germantown, Nov. 17, 1793. 
Dear Sir, — 1 have got good lodgings for Monroe & 
yourself, that is to say, a good room with a fire-place 
& two beds, in a pleasant & convenient position, with 
a quiet family. They will breakfast you, but you must 
mess in a tavern ; there is a good one across the street. 
This is the way in which all must do, and all I think 
will not be able to get even half beds. The President 
will remain here I believe till the meeting of Congress, 
merely to form a point of union for them before they 
can have acquired information & courage. For at 
present there does not exist a single subject in the dis- 
order, no new infection having taken place since the 
great rains the ist of the month, & those before in- 
fected being dead or recovered. There is no doubt 
you will sit in Philadelphia, & therefore I have not 
given Monroe's letter to Sechel. I do not write to 
him, because I know not whether he is at present mov- 
ing by sea or by land, & if by the latter, I presume 
you can communicate to him. — Wayne has had a 
convoy of 22. wagons of provisions, and 70. men cut 
off 15. miles in his rear by the Indians. 6. of the 
men were found on the spot scalped, the rest supposed 
taken. He had nearly reached Fort Hamilton. R. 
has given notice that he means to resign. Genet by 



• 



(^Jn ''"^ trejiyr. it. ^>>-^ . ^-<*Vv./^£ 



■7 






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"I- r,'.u^-n~y y^ {/rt , v >-.^._ . /.«.-»>-^ t i^/a 



^^^-^^^^ 



^^>w^ ^^>Y A^y^ ^-^'-^ 



Facsimile of Jefferson's Letter to Herman Le Roy, 

Original in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 97 

more & more denials of powers to the President and 
ascribing them to Congress, is evidently endeavoring 
to sow tares between them, & at any event to curry 
favor with the latter to whom he means to turn his 
appeal, finding it was not likely to be well received 
with the people. Accept both of you my sincere 
affection. 



JEFFERSON TO MISS MARIA JEFFERSON. 

Germantown, Nov. 17, 1793. 

No letter yet from my dear Maria, who is so 
fond of writing, so punctual in her correspondencies ! 
I enjoin as a penalty that the next must be written in 
French. — now for news, the fever is entirely vanished 
from Philadelphia, not a single person has taken in- 
fection since the great rains about the ist of the month, 
& those who had it before are either dead or recovered, 
all the inhabitants who had fled are returning into the 
city, probably will all be returned in the course of the 
ensuing week, the President has been into the city, 
but will probably remain here till the meeting of Con- 
gress to form a point of union for them before they 
will have had time to gather knowledge and courage. 
I have not yet been in, not because there is a shadow 



98 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

of danger but because I am afoot. — Thomas* is re- 
turned into my service. His wife and child went into 
town the day we left them, they then had the infec- 
tion of the yellow fever, were taken two or three days 
after, and both died, had we staid those two or three 
days longer, they would have been taken at our house. 
I have heard nothing of Miss Cropper, her trunk 
remains at our house. Mrs. Fullerton left Philadel- 
phia. Mr. & Mrs. Rittenhouse remained there but 
have escaped the fever. — follow closely your music, 
reading, sewing, house-keeping, and love me as I do 

you, 

most affectionately, 

Th : Jefferson. 

Tell Mr. Randolph that General Wayne has a convoy 

of 22. waggons of provisions & 70 men cut off in his 

rear by the Indians. 

Miss Maria Jefferson. 



*Thomas Lapsley designated as ** the office keeper." 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 99 

JEFFERSON TO GEORGE TAYLOR.* 

Notes for Mr. Taylor. Nov. 18. 1793. 
Mr. Chapman to be engaged, by the day, letting 
him know that the job will probably be only of from 
2. to 4. weeks. 



some one to come here immediately, it may be 
any one of the gentlemen who would rather be here 
than in Philadelphia ; or if none of them would prefer 
it, it may be Mr. Chapman or any other hired person. 



Mr. Taylor will be pleased to undertake the 
translating all the French letters of Mr. Genet which 
made part of the Appendix to the letter to G. Morris, 
sending me every afternoon his rough translations of 
the preceding 24. hours, which I will examine & return 
to him to be fair copied, unless we should have time 
to copy them here. I have the originals here to 
examine them by. 



it is extremely desireable that the recording my 
letters could go on constantly, because they must be 
brought up to the last day of December next by that 

*Chief Clerk of the Department of State. 

Lore 



loo THE GERMANTOJVN LETTERS 

day, and we cannot work double-handed on that, the 
gentleman hitherto employed in that (I believe it was 
Mr. Barbour.) should resume it, & not be called off 
for any thing else. 



three others must be immediately set to work on 
the letters & Appendix to Mr. Hammond, conse- 
quently there is a necessity to engage another besides 
Mr. Chapman, and even two if it can be done, if one 
of them should understand French well, it would be a 
favorable circumstance. 



This done, the instructions to Carmichael & 
Short* will be to be copied twice, & all before Congress 
meets. 



the person who comes here must bring a provision 
of copying paper and letter paper, the quality of the 
last sent me is excellent, but it must be cut down to 
the regular office size. I send a sample of the paper, 
the size-board is in the office. 



800. sea letters to be printed & sent here. 



the office to be whitewashed in the course of this 
week. 

^Commissioners of the United States at Madrid. 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS loi 

Send me by the return of the rider the date of 

Fulwar Skipwith's appointment to the Consulship of 

Martinique. 

Th: J. 



GEORGE TAYLOR TO THOMAS JEFFERSON, 

G. Taylor Jr. presents his respectful compliments to 
the Secy, of State — Has the honor to inform him that 
agreeably to his note of to day he has engaged Mr. 
Chapman, who cannot conveniently leave the City. 
That he has examined the letters and reports yet to 
be recorded, and finds that they will each require one 
person to be employed at least to the last of Decem- 
ber next That Mr. Bankson has resumed the former 
and Mr. Blackwell who arrived here on Saturday is 
engaged at the latter and is now upon the long letter 
to Mr. Hammond — The documents to which G. T. 
purposes giving to Mr. Chapman to morrow. The 
Dr. is now employed copying the letter to Messrs. 
Short & Carmichael — That a Mr. Jonathan Smith, 
who can be recommended by Mr. Kean Cashier of the 
Bank of the US. but at any rate will engage temporarily 
only having applied for a berth in the Treasury, will 
in case the Secretary of State should think proper to 
employ him, go out to morrow. That should the 
Secy, think it expedient to take Mr. Blackwell off the 



I02 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

reports for the present he has not the least objection 
to go to Germantown. That the office is nearly all 
cleansed. That the only Credences or powers of Mr. 
Genet (3 in number) in his possession are herewith 
sent. None of them seem to give to him those 
of Consul General. That the date of Fulwar Skip- 
with's Commission as Consul at Martinique is the 7. 
June 1790. That G. T. has not been able to translate 
any of the documents to day, but will begin on them 
to-night. — 

Mr. Bankson wishes to have the Secy, of States 
letters for July last, please excuse haste as the rider 
is waiting 
Phila. 18. Nov. 1793 



JEFFERSON TO JOHN ROSS.* 

Germantown Nov. 19. 1793 
Dear Sir 

I sincerely congratulate you on your resurrection, 

on the faith of the newspapers I really lamented you 

*John Ross was a prominent merchant of Philadelphia and a 
director of one of the banks. Jefferson had arranged the loan with 
him some two months previously as will be shown by the following 
letter dated September 13, 1793 : 

Dear Sir, — As all the world is flying, I think to fly too in two 
or three days, but I am jiioney-bound. I shall have 215. dollars free 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 103 

dead for several days. I hope Mrs. Ross & all your 

family have enjoyed good health during the afflictions 

of the city. 

Not knowing what date was inserted in my note 

for the 100. D. you were so kind as to give me for it, 

nor where to seek the note, as nobody has come to 

seek me about it, I enclose you a check for the sum 

on the bank of the US. with many thanks for the 

friendly accommodation, with my best respects to 

yourself & Mrs. Ross 1 am Dear Sir 

Your friend & sert 

Th : Jefferson 
John Ross esq. 

out of moneys to be received for me at the Treasury between two and 
three weeks hence. But, to pay some matters to people in want, and 
to carry me home also 1 have occasion for loo. Doll. more. Having 
never had any money connection at Philadelphia, I take the liberty of 
applying to you rather than to any other person, to enable me to re- 
ceive immediately the amount of the enclosed order on mr. Bankson 
(one of my clerks who is to receive the money at the treasury for me) 
and of my own note for loo D. which I cannot get by discount from 
the bank till Wednesday next, and my wish is to go on Sunday or 
Monday. I expect to be absent 7. weeks, but for fear any accident 
might delay me a few days, I have left the date of my note blank to 
be filled on the day it shall be lodged in the bank, that I may be the less 
hurried by this circumstance in my return. I will assuredly see that 
it be taken up in time. It you can, for this paper, furnish me a 
check on the bank or its amount otherwise, you will enable my wheels 
to get into motion, which otherwise stand still. I have the honor to 
be with great esteem and respect, dear sir, your most obedient servant. 



I04 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

JEFFERSON TO EDMOND C. GENET 

Th : Jefferson has the honor to present his 
respects to Mr. Genet & to acknowledge the receipt 
at the hands of a Courier, of his letter of Nov. 12. and 
two others of Nov. 16. which shall be immediately 
communicated to the President. 
Germantown Nov. 19, 1793. 



JEFFERSON TO MR. SODERSTROM. 

Germantown Nov. 20. 1793. 
Sir 

I received last night your favor of the i6th No 

particular rules have been established by the President 
for the conduct of Consuls with respect to prizes, in 
one particular case, where a prize is brought into our 
ports by any of the belligerent parties, and is reclaimed 
of the Executive, the President has hitherto permitted 
the Consul of the Captor to hold the prize until his 
determination is known, but in all cases respecting a 
neutral nation, their vessels are placed exactly on the 
same footing with our own, entitled to the same remedy 
from our courts of justice & the same protection from 
the Executive, as our own vessels in the same situa- 
tion, the remedy in the courts of justice, the only 
one which they or our own have access to, is slower 
than where it lies with the Executive, but it is more 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 105 



complete, as damages can be given by the court, but 
not by the Executive. 

The President will gladly avail himself of any in- 
formation you can at any time give him where his 
interference may be useful to the vessels or subjects of 
his Danish Majesty, the desire of the US. being to 
extend to the vessels & subjects of that crown, as well 
as to those of his Swedish majesty the same protection 
as is given to those of our own citizens. 

I have the honor to be with much respect Sir 
Your most obedt. sert. 
Mr. Soderstrom Consul of Sweden. Th: Jefferson 



ROBERT GAMBLE TO JEFFERSON. 

Richmond, Novemr. 21. 1793 
Sir 

I have your favor of the 14th. covering a letter to 
Mr. Newburn. Which is delivered him to night — 
(he is returned some weeks past) — 

It is with great pleasure I hear from you. That 
the dreadfui disease which raged in Philadelphia has 
subsided, — I wish the President may not, have risked 
too much, by going to the City so soon. — Melancholly 
would public affairs appear to our Citizens, at this im- 
portant Crisis ; should he be taken from the Helm of 
Government — . Shall we have no hopes of your con- 



io6 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

tinuing in office ? Many of your friends yet flatter 
themselves you will at last postpone your resignation. 

Since the day after I came to Richmond* I have 
been confined to my Room & Bed by sickness — And 
now Just able to sit up. — This, to a poor country-born 
merchant is a great difficulty, at this particular season 
of the year. — however, I trust that I feel gratitude to 
God. That I am in a fair prospect of recovery. — 

I have the pleasure to inform you this. The 
Honble John Brown is recovered from his sickness on 
Staunton & will be able to attend Congress early in 
the session — 

The fellow who brought your wine (in cases) from 
Baltimore having been pd. the freight there. — did not 
call on my young man here. — And therefore stored 
them at Rockets. I believe all is safe. — I understand 
you have more goods with the same People (Hague 
& Liester) — And now as I hope to be able in a few 
days to attend to business — I will select some Careful 
Waggoner, by whom I can forward the Wine &c.. 
either to Monticello or Colo Betts at Charlotsville safe. 
I am with sentiments of esteem 
and respect, your Mo. ob. H. sert 

Rt. Gamble 

*ColoneI Robert Gamble was a native of Staunton, Va., and had 
but recently removed to Richmond. 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 107 

JEFFERSON TO JACOB HOLLINGSWORTH.* 

Germantown, near Philadelphia, Nov. 22, 1793. 
Sir 

When I passed your house last, you told me you 

thought there would be to be bought there red clover 

seed, fresh and cheap. I take the liberty to enclose 

you a twenty dollar bill & to beg the favor of you to 

lay it out for me in as much fresh clover seed as it will 

buy, and to give the seed in charge to the overseer 

whom you shall be so good as to employ for me. to 

be carried on with him. Not having yet heard from 

you on that subject I am apprehensive you have found 

more difficulty than you expected, lest the terms should 

have escaped our memory I was to give Saml. Biddle 

120. dollars a year, & 5 or 600 lbs. of fresh pork. 

when he arrived there, as it had been too far to carry 

heavy things, & to save him the expense of buying, I 

had made for him a half a dozen chairs, table, bedstead 

& such other things as my own workmen could make. 

he carried his own bedding & small conveniences. 

this is sufficient to serve as a guide with the person 

now to be employed. I am with esteem Sir 

Your most obedt. sert 

Th : Jefferson. 
Mr. Jacob Hollingsworth. 

*He resided near the Head of Elk on the road from Baltimore 
to Philadelphia. 



io8 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

JEFFERSON TO EDMOND GENET. 

Germantown Nov. 11. 1793. 

Sir 

In my letter of Oct. 2. I took the liberty of 

noticing to you that the commission of Consul to M. 
Dannery ought to have been addressed to the Presi- 
dent of the US. he being the only channel of com- 
munication between this country and foreign nations 
or their agents are to learn what is or has been the 
will of the nation, and whatever he communicates as 
such they have a right and are bound to consider as 
the expression of the nation, and no foreign agent can 
be allowed to question it, to interpose between him & 
any other branch of government under the pretext of 
cither's transgressing their functions, nor to make 
himself the umpire and final judge between them. I 
am therefore, Sir, not authorized to enter into any 
discussions with you on the meaning of our constitu- 
tion in any part of it, or to prove to you that it has 
ascribed to him alone the admission or interdiction of 
foreign agents. I inform you of the fact by authority 
from the President. I had observed to you that we 
were persuaded that in the case of the Consul Dannery, 
the error in the address had proceeded from no inten- 
tion in the Executive Council of France to question 
the functions of the President, and therefore no diffi- 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 109 

culty was made in issuing the commission, we are 
still under the same persuasion, but in your letter of 
the 14th inst. you personally question the authority of 
the President, and in consequence of that have not 
addressed to him the commission of Messrs. Pennevert 
& Chervi. making a point of this formality on your 
part, it becomes necessary to make a point of it on 
ours also ; & I am therefore charged to return you 
those commissions, and to inform you that, bound to 
enforce respect to the order of things established by 
our constitution, the President will issue no Exequater 
to any Consul or Vice Consul not directed to him in 
the usual form after the party from whom it comes 
has been apprized that such should be the address. 
I have the honor to be with respect Sir 
Your most obdt. 

& most humble sert. 

Th : Jefferson 
Mr. Genet. 



JEFFERSON TO EDMOND GENET. 

Germantown Nov. 22, 1793. 
Sir 

Immediately on the receipt of your favor of the 

2d. inst. informing me of a conspiracy among the 

refugees from the French colonies now at Charleston, 



no THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

to undertake an expedition from there against the said 
colonies, I communicated the information to the Gov- 
ernor of S. Carolina with a desire that he would pre- 
vent every enterprize of that nature. 

The other matters contained in the same letter 
belong of course to the ordinary cognizance of the 
Judiciary, which is open to the parties interested with- 
out any interposition of the Executive. 

I have the honor to be with great respect Sir 
Your most obedt. 

& most humble sert 
The Min. Pleny. of France. Th : Jefferson 



JEFFERSON TO ROBERT SCOTT. 

Germantown Nov. 23. 1793. 
Sir, 

The President of the United States desiring to 

avail the Public of your Services as Engraver for the 

Mint,* I have now the honor of enclosing you the 

Commission, and of expressing to you the sentiments 

[of] perfect respect with which, 

I am. Sir, 

Your mo. obedient and 

most humble servant, 

Robert Scott. Th : Jefferson 

*Robert Scott continued engraver of the Mint for many years. 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 1 1 1 



JEFFERSON TO GENET. 

Germantown, November 24th, 1793. 

Sir: 

I have laid before the President of the United 
States your two letters of the nth and 14th instant, 
on the subject of new advances of money, and they 
were immediately referred to the Secretary of the 
Treasury, within whose department subjects of this 
nature lie. 1 have now the honor of inclosing you a 
copy of his report thereon to the President in answer 
to your letters, and of adding assurances of respect 
and esteem of, Sir, &c. 



ELI WHITNEY TO JEFFERSON.* 

The Hon. Thomas Jefferson, Esq., Secretary of State 
for the United States. 

New Haven, Nov. 24th, 1793. 
Respected Sir, I received your favor of the i6th 
inst. yesterday, and with pleasure take the earliest op- 
portunity to answer your enquiries concerning my 
machine for cleaning cotton. 

It is about a year smce 1 first turned my attention 
to constructing this machine, at which time I was in 

^Published in the Massachusetts Historical Collections, Seventh 
Series, Vol. i, Page 47. 



112 THE GERMANTOJVN LETTERS 

the State of Georgia, Within about ten days after my 
first conception of the plan, I made a small, though 
imperfect model. Experiments with this encouraged 
me to make one on a larger scale. But the extreme 
difficulty of procuring workmen and proper materials 
in Georgia, prevented my completing the larger one, 
until some time in April last. This though much 
larger than my first attempt, is not above one third 
so large as the machines may be made with conven- 
ience. The cylinder is only two feet, two inches in 
length and six inches diameter. It is turned by hand 
and requires the strength of one man to keep it in 
constant motion. It is the stated task of one negro 
to clean 50 wt (I mean fifty pounds after it is separated 
from the seed) of the green cotton pr day. This 
task he usually completes by one o'clock in the after- 
noon. He is paid so much per lb, for all he cleans 
over and above his task, and for ten or fifteen days 
successively he has cleared from sixty to eighty wt pr 
day and left work every day before sunset. The 
machine cleaned fifteen hundred weight in about four 
weeks, which cotton was examined in N. York, the 
quality declared good and sold in market at the highest 
price. 

I have. Sir, been thus particular in relating the 
experience I have had of the performance of this 



THE GERMANTOJVN LETTERS 113 

machine, and that you may be better able to judge of 
its utility and success. 

I have not had much experience in cleaning the 
black seed cotton. 1 only know that it will clean this 
kind considerably faster than it will the green seeded, 
but how much I cannot say. 

After the workmen are acquainted with the busi- 
ness, I should judge, the real expense of one which 
will clean a hundred wt pr day, would not exceed the 
price often of those in common use. 

I shall have another person concerned with me in 
carrying on the business after the patent is obtained.'^' 
We have not yet determined at what price we shall 
sell the machines, it will, however, be so low as to in- 
duce the purchaser to give them a preference to any 
other. 

We are now erecting one on a large scale, to be 
turned by horses, for our own use, and I do not think 
it will be in our power to make any for sale this 
winter. 

This, Sir, is not the machine advertised by Pearce 
at the Patterson Manufactory. I never saw a machine 
of any kind whatever for ginning cotton, until several 



*Phineas Miller, a native of Connecticut. 



114 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

months after I invented this for which I have applied 
for a patent. Some time last spring, I saw it men- 
tioned in a Savannah news-paper that Mr. Pearce of 
New Jersey had invented a machine for ginning cotton, 
but there was no mention made of the construction. 
I have since understood that his improvement was 
only a multiplication of the small rollers used in the 
common gins. This is every thing I know concern- 
ing the machine to which I suppose you allude in 
your postscript. 

I think the machine is well calculated for family 
use. It may be made on a very small scale and yet 
perform in proportion to its size, I believe one might 
be made within the compass of two cubic feet, that 
would cleanse all the cotton which any one family 
manufactures for its own use. The machine itself 
does considerable towards carding the cotton, and I 
have no doubt but by leaving out the clearer and add- 
ing three or four cylinders covered with card-teeth, it 
would deliver cotton completely prepared for spinning. 
You will be able to form a more perfect idea of the 
machine from the model, which will be so complete 
as to perform the operation of separating the cotton 
from the seed. 

It is my intention to come to Philadelphia within 
a few weeks and bring the model myself, but pe(rhaps) 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 115 

it will not be in my power, in which case I s(hall) send 
forward the model with an order for the patent. 
I am, respected Sir, your humbl servt 

Eli Whitney 
The Hon. Thos. Jefferson, Esq. 



JEFFERSON TO ARCHIBALD STUART.* 

Germantown, Nov. 24, 1793. 
Dear Sir, — When I had the pleasure of seeing you at 
Monticello you mentioned to me that sheep could be 
procured at or about Staunton, good & cheap, and 
were kind enough to offer your aid in procuring them. 
Reflecting on this subject, I find it will be much better 
to buy & drive them now, before they have young 
ones, & before the snow sets in, than to wait till the 
spring. I therefore take the liberty of enclosing you 
a 40. Doll, bank post note, which I will beg the favor 
of you to lay out for me in sheep, taking time between 
the purchase & delivery, to give notice to Mr. Ran- 
dolph at Monticello to have them sent for, the letter 
to be directed to him, or in his absence to Samuel 
Biddle overseer at Monticello. Your endorsement on 
the post note will transfer & make it payable to bearer, 

*Original in the possession of the Virginia Historical Society. 



ii6 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

and consequently will be cash to anybody at Staunton 
or Richmond who wishes to remit to Philadelphia ; or 
the custom house officer at Richmond will always be 
glad to give cash for it. What apology must I make 
for so free a call on you ? And what thanks & apology 
for the use I made of your friendly offer as to the 
potatoes ? But I am again a new beginner in the 
world, & it is usual for old settlers to help young ones. 
France is triumphant in the North. Her rebellion 
also subsides. The affair of Toulon is against her as 
yet ; but I suspect it is not over, — the yellow fever is 
entirely vanished in Philadelphia, & all the inhabitants 
returned to it. The President remains here merely to 
form a point of union for the members of Congress, 
who may arrive uninformed of the safety of Philadel- 
phia ; but nobody doubts that they will immediately 
go from hence to sit in Philadelphia. I shall be 
within striking distance of you by the 15th of January. 
Accept assurances of my respect and affection. 



JEFFERSON TO EDMOND C. GENET. 

Germantown Nov. 24. 1793. 
Sir 

I am to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 
the 19th. instant, & to thank you for the information 



THE GERMANTOIVN LETTERS 117 

it conveys of the present state of the French islands in 
the West Indies, their condition must always be inter- 
esting to the US. with whom nature has connected 
them by the strong link of mutual necessities, the 
riot which had been raised in Philadelphia some days 
ago, by emigrants from St. Domingo, had before ex- 
cited the indignation & attention of the government, 
both local & general, it is with extreme concern that 
they now learn that the respectable strangers whom 
you mention, were brought into danger by it, and cer- 
tainly no endeavors will be wanting to bring the 
offenders to condign punishment. I have the honor 
to inclose you a proclamation which had been issued 
immediately by the Mayor of Philadelphia, and to 
assure you that the efforts he is using will receive from 
the general government every aid they can give, to 
make a signal example of those who have thus violated 
that protection which the laws of the US. extend to 
all persons within their pale. 

I have the honor to be with great respect Sir 
Your most obedt. 

& humble servt. 

Th : Jefferson 
The Min. Plen. of France. 



ii8 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

JEFFERSON TO THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH. 

Germantown, Nov. 24, 1793. 
Dear Sir 

I received yesterday your favor of the 14th. 
mine of the 2d. ought to have been then at hand, & 
since that those of the loth. & 17th. all will have 
informed you of my health, & being here. I am 
happy that you think Ferguson will suit you, and 
insist on your acceptance of him. and this is no sac- 
rifice to me, because my sole motive for having 
thought of parting with him was that he is unnecessary 
for me, as 1 must keep carriage horses which will do 
to ride. I insist also as a condition, that you feel 
yourself perfectly free to part with him whenever he 
ceases to answer your end or you can by parting with 
him have your ends better answered. from this 
moment then he is yours, and I am much happier in 
it than to have turned him over to any other person. 

I am sorry you have so much trouble with my 
furniture. However I shall soon be able to relieve 
you from any drudgery. I enclose you a letter to Mr. 
Stewart, open, that you may see its contents, & give 
the necessary directions to Mr. Biddle to go or send 
for the sheep when notified that they are ready. I 
think it important they should be fetched before the 
snows. I am sincerely sorry to hear of the situation 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 119 

of Colo. Randolph, it has been apprehended for 
some time, should he leave you his executor, it may 
merit mature consideration whether you will consult 
your ease (?) or interest in undertaking to act. my 
love to my dear Martha & Maria, and am Dear Sir 
affectionately yours 

Th : Jefferson. 
Mr. Randolph. 



JEFFERSON TO MYERS. 

Germantown Nov. 24. 1793. 
Sir 

According to my engagement I now inclose you 
186. Doll, thirty six cents — X55-18-3 Virginia cur- 
rency to be passed to the credit of Mrs. Carr. you 
will readily perceive that your endorsement on the in- 
closed bank note will make it cash to any person will- 
ing to remit to Philadelphia, the Custom house 
officers particularly take up these notes by a general 
arrangement. 

I am Sir 

Your most obedt. sert 

Th : Jefferson 
Mr. Myers. 



I20 THE GERMANTOJVN LETTERS 

JEFFERSON TO THOMAS PINCKNEY.* 

Germantown Nov. 27. 1793. 
Dear Sir 

My last letters to you were of the iith. & 
14th. of Sep. since which I have received yours of 
July 5.8. Aug. I.I 5.27.28. the fever which at that 
time had given alarm in Philadelphia, became after- 
wards far more destructive than had been apprehended, 
& continued much longer, from the uncommon 
drought & warmth of the autumn. On the ist. day 
of this month the President & heads of the depart- 
ments assembled here, on that day also began the 
first rains which had fallen for some months, they 
were copious, & from that moment the infection 
ceased, no new subject took it, & those before infected 
either died or got well, so that the disease terminated 
most suddenly, the inhabitants who had left the city,, 
are now all returned, & business going on again as 
briskly as ever, the President will be established there 
in about a week: at which time Congress is to meet. 
Our negotiations with the North Western Indians 
have completely failed, so that war must settle our 
difference, we expected nothing else, & had gone into 
the negotiations only to prove to all our citizens that 

*Minister of the United States to Great Britain. 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 121 

peace was unattainable on terms which any one of 
them would admit. 

You have probably heard of a great misunder- 
standing between Mr. Genet & us. on the meeting 
of Congress it will be made public, but as the details 
of it are lengthy, I must refer for them to my next 
letter when possibly I may be able to send you the 
whole correspondence in point. we have kept it 
merely personal, convinced his nation will disapprove 
him. to them we have with the utmost assiduity 
given every proof of inviolate attachment, we wish 
to hear from you on the subject of M. de la Fayette, 
tho we know that circumstances do not admit sanguine 
hopes. 

The copper by the Pigon, & Mohawk is received, 
our coinage of silver has been delayed by Mr. Coxe's 
inability to give the security required by law. 

I shall write to you again immediately after the 

meeting of Congress. I have the honor to be with 

sentiments of great esteem & respect. Dear Sir 

Your friend & servt. 

Th : Jefferson. 
Mr. Pinckney. 



122 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

JEFFERSON TO MRS. CHURCH.* 

Germantown, Nov. 27th, 1793. 
I have received, my very good friend, your kind 
letter of August 19th, with the extract from that of 
Lafayette, for whom my heart has been constantly 
bleeding. The influence of the United States has 
been put into action, as far as it could be either with 
decency or effect. But I fear that distance and differ- 
ence of principle give little hold to General Washing- 
ton on the jailers of Lafayette. However, his friends 
may be assured that our zeal has not been inactive. 
Your letter gives me the first information that our 
dear friend Madame de Corny has been, as to her 
fortune, among the victims of the times. Sad times, 
indeed! and much-lamented victim! I know no 
country where the remains of a fortune could place 
her so much at her ease as this, and where public 

*This was Angelica (Schuyler) Church, daughter of General 
Philip Schuyler, of New York, and therefore a sister of Mrs. Alex- 
ander Hamilton. In 1777 she married John Barker Church, an 
Englishman who had espoused the cause of the Colonies. At the end 
of the war they returned to England and in 1788 Mr. Church was 
elected a. member of Parliament. Their home in London was the 
centre of noted hospitality, particularly to Americans and the French 
emigres of the Revolution. They were deeply interested in 
securing the release of Lafayette from his Austrian prison. In 1797 
they returned to New York. The letter is reprinted from The 
Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson, p. 224. 



THE GERMANTOJVN LETTERS 123 

esteem Is so attached to worth, regardless of wealth ; 
but our manners, and the state of our society here, are 
so different from those to which her habits have been 
formed, that she would lose more, perhaps, in that 
scale. And Madam Cosway in a convent ! 1 knew 
that to much goodness of heart she joined enthusiasm 
and religion ; but I thought that very enthusiasm 
would have prevented her from shutting up her adora- 
tion of the God of the universe within the walls of a 
cloister ; that she would rather have sought the moun- 
tain-top. How happy should I be that it were mine 
that you, she, and Madame de Corny would seek. 
You say, indeed, that you are coming to America, but 
I know that means New York. In the mean time, I 
am going to Virginia. I have at length been able to 
fix that to the beginning of the new year. I am then 
to be liberated from the hated occupation of politics, 
and to remain in the bosom of my family, my farm, 
and my books, I have my house to build, my fields 
to farm, and to watch for the happiness of those who 
labor for mine. I have one daughter married to a man 
of science, sense, virtue, and competence ; in whom 
indeed I have nothing more to wish. They live with 
me. If the other shall be as fortunate, in due process 
of time I shall imagine myself as blessed as the most 
blessed of the patriarchs. Nothing could then with- 



124 THE GERMJNTOJVN LETTERS 

draw my thoughts a moment from home but a recol- 
lection of my friends abroad. I often put the question, 
whether yourself and Kitty will ever come to see your 
friends at Monticello? but it is my affection, and not 
my experience of things, which has leave to answer, 
and I am determined to believe the answer, because in 
that belief I find I sleep sounder, and wake more 
cheerful. En attendant^ God bless you. 

Accept the homage of my sincere and constant 

affection, 

Th : Jefferson. 



JEFFERSON TO JOHN NANCARROW.* 

Germantown Nov. 28. 1793. 
Dear Sir 

Having been sensible that Mrs. Nancarrow 

& yourself were proposing to incommode yourselves 

out of merely friendly dispositions to me, and that I 

could not avoid embarrassing you more than I could 

*John Nancarrow is described in the directory of 1793 as steel 
manufacturer. His home was 291 High St., but two doors above 
the office of the Secretary of State. The following letter from the 
original in the Virginia Historical Society written March 31st 1793 by 
Jefferson to his friend Archibald Stuart, of Staunton, Va., may perhaps 
explain why Jefferson did not want to put himself under obligations to 
the Nancarrows in accepting the hospitality which they had proffered. 

Dear Sir, 

I have written you a line this day by Mr. John Nancarrow to 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 125 

be easy under, I received yesterday with great satis- 
faction the offer of commodious apartments which I 
have not hesitated to engage, because it relieves me 
insomuch as it relieves you from the inconveniences 
which your friendship disposed you to encounter, 
accept for Mrs. Nancarrow & yourself my sincere 
thanks for this proof of your goodness, & assurances 
of the esteem of Dear Sir 

Your friend & sert 

Th : Jefferson. 
Mr. Nancarrow. 



recommend him to you as a man of worth and science. What I say 
therein of him is religiously true, and I recommend him sincerely as a 
man I esteem, but lest you should be off your guard I mention in this, 
which goes by post, that I have understood his circumstances here to 
be bad, so that you must not be led into any money matters on his 
account. I had avoided saying anything on that subject in my other 
letter, but apprehensive you might not infer that it was done of design, 
I have thought it my duty to be more particular in this special letter. 
I wish Mr. Nancarrow would be persuaded to set up with you some 
more hopeful business than that of mining. I should imagine his 
former one of making steel would be gainful. 



126 THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 

JEFFERSON TO DISTRICT ATTORNEYS. 

[Copy] 
To U. S. Attornies 

Germantown, Novr. 29th. 1793. 
Sir, 

The Minister Plenipo. of France complains that 
the Consuls of his Nation are exposed to insults, and 
their persons to danger from the numerous French 
Refugees, chiefly of the Islands, who are in & about 
the places of their residence, and are understood to be 
ill disposed to the Government of France, and those 
in authority under it. The Consuls are liable to the 
ordinary laws of the country and entitled to their pro- 
tection, as other Strangers are, yet, from respect to the 
Sovereign whose commission they bear, a more atten- 
tive enforcement of the laws of protection is due to 
them than to other Strangers. I presume that the 
laws of all the States have provided proper punish- 
ment for breaches of the peace committed ; I presume 
that in all the States some measure oi prevention against 
threatened danger equivalent to that of binding to the 
peace, or good behaviour in the English law has pro- 
vided. — I am therefore to ask the favor of you to in- 
form the Consul of France, residing in your State, that 
the federal government respecting his Nation, and at- 
tentive to the safety of those employed by it here, will 



THE GERMANTOWN LETTERS 127 

put into activity all the means of protection for his 
person which the laws have provided ; — that you will 
be so good as to explain to him what these provisions 
are, and how he is to proceed to avail himself of them 
in case of need — and that you will in the same and all 
other cases, take any measures which they authorize to 
prevent or to punish breeches of the peace or good 
behaviour towards him, which are characterized and 
forbidden as such by the laws. 

I have the honor to be with great Esteem & respect. 
Sir, 

Your most Obedient Servant. 

Th: Jefferson 

Chrstopr. Gore j Mass. 

Richd. Harrison f N. York. 

William Rawle > Esqrs. Pennsya. 

Zebulon Hollingsworth. . .1 Ma'y'd. 

Thomas Parker I So. Carolina. 

Attornies of the U. S. 



PART II. 



GERMANTOWN 

CABINET 

MEETINGS. 



132 CABINET MEETINGS 

the whole a ** calm revisal." These memoranda 
of a widely different character, official opinions, 
accounts of meetings, gossip, conversations, 
anecdotes, information, are grouped together in 
three volumes, now in the possession of the 
Library of Congress, and called by the author 
**The Anas of Thomas Jefferson." They were 
first published in the edition of Jefferson's 
writings authorized by Congress and edited by 
H. A. Washington in 1854. They are also 
included in Ford's Writings of Thomas Jeffer- 
son, and a separate, complete edition of the 
Anas was published in New York in 1903. 

In all these editions the notes have been 
edited, the spelling, punctuating and capitalizing 
corrected. It was thought by the compiler 
that as the Anas were readily accessible in other 
forms, it would add to their interest to give 
those which are here included, exactly as Jeffer- 
son jotted them down. The accounts of the 
cabinet meetings in Germantown are particu- 
larly full and replete with interest. While it 
is not likely the questions discussed, questions at 



CABINET MEETINGS 133 

that time of weighty importance, will be of 
much interest to the casual reader, still the dis- 
cussion cannot fail to be of interest as disclosing 
the diametrical views held by the two talented 
men, the leaders of the cabinet, Jefferson and 
Hamilton. On every important public matter 
their opinions clashed, Jefferson with a convic- 
tion that was immovable and Hamilton with a 
conviction equally strong, but urged with 
greater impetuousness and warmth. These 
differences arose almost immediately on Jeffer- 
son's taking office and by the time we are consider- 
ing, the cabinet councils had become the scene of 
perpetual wrangles, which wearing as they must 
have been to the two principals in the discus- 
sions, must have been even more so to the 
President. The Cabinet was frequently evenly 
divided, then the decision would rest with the 
President, but in one case at least, as recorded in 
these notes, Washington stood with Jefferson 
alone as against the other three. 

Edmund Randolph, the Attorney General, 
usually sided with Jefferson, while Henry Knox, 



134 CABINET MEETINGS 

the Secretary of War, was an adherent of 
Hamilton's. It must have been a great relief 
to all concerned when at the end of the year 
Jefferson retired. The Cabinet notes as re- 
corded and preserved by Jefferson follow. 



Nov. 15.93. E- ^-^ ^^1^^ "^^ ^^^^ Ham.* in 
conversn with him yesterday said " Sir, if all 
the people in America were now assembled & 
to call on me to say whether I am a friend 
to the French revolution, I would declare that 
/ have it in abhorrence!' 

Nov. 8. 93. at a conference at the Presi- 
dent's,t where I read several letters of Mr. 
Genet, on finishing one of them, I asked what 
should be the answer ? the Presdt. thereupon 

* Throughout the abbreviations E. R. and R. of course stand 
for Randolph. H. and Ham. for Hamilton, and K. for Knox. 

•|- The President was then lodging with the Reverend Frederic 
Herman, pastor of the German Reformed Church at the Market 
Square and at the same time the German teacher of the Academy, 
adjoining which grounds was his house, now No. 130 School House 
Lane. Washington occupied this house from November ist, when 
he reached Germantown, until November i ith, when he set out on a 
week's trip to Reading and Lancaster, Pa. 



CABINET MEETINGS 135 

took occasion to observe that Mr. Genet's con- 
duct contind. to be of so extraordr. a nature 
that he meant to propose to our serious considn. 
whether he should not have his functions 
discontd. & be ordd. away ? he went lengthily 
into observns. on his conduct to raise against 
the Executive i. the people, 2. the state 
govmts. 3. the congress, he shewed he felt the 
venom of Genet's pen, but declared he would 
not chuse his insolence should be regarded any 
further than as it might be thought to affect the 
honor of the country. Hamilton & Knox 
readily & zealously argued for dismissing Mr. 
Genet. Randolph opposed it with firmness, & 
pretty lengthily, the Presid. replied to him 
lengthily, & concluded by saying he did not 
wish to have the thing hastily decided but that 
we should consider of it, and give our opinions 
on his return from Reading and Lancaster. 

accdly 

Nov. 18. we met at his house,''' read new 

* The President was absent from Germantown from Novem- 
ber iith to 17 th inclusive, on a trip to the interior of Pennsylvania, 
on his return he occupied the house now No. 5442 Main Street, 



136 CABINET MEETINGS 

volumes of Genet's Ires. reed, since the Presi- 
dent's departure, then took up the discussion of 
the subjects of communin. to Congress i. the 
Proclmn.* E. R. read the statement that he 
had prepared. Hamilton did not like it, said 
much about his own views, that the Presidt. 
had a right to declare his opns. to our citizens 
& foreign nations— that it was not the interest 
of this country to join in the war & that we 
were under no oblign. to join in it, that tho' the 
declr. would not legally bind Congress, yet the 
Presidt. had a right to give his opn. of it, and 
he was agt. any expln. in the speechf which 
should yield that he did not intend that foreign 

Germantown. Its owner. Colonel Isaac Franks, had taken refuge 
further from the stricken city, and after considerable negotiation the 
house, which was superior in location and no doubt in comfort, was 
secured for the President. A full account of the house and the Presi- 
dent's occupancy of it will be found in Washington in Germantown. 

* April 23, 1793, Washington had issued a Proclamation of 
Neutrality in the war which had broken out between England and 
France. This step was greatly unpopular with a large portion ot the 
citizens of the United States who thought we should actively aid 
France, our late ally. It was necessary that the matter should be 
presented in its best light to Congress. 

•j- This was the speech which the President addressed in person to 
the newly assembled Congress. 



CABINET MEETINGS 137 

nations shd. consider it as a declr. of neutrality 
future as well as present, that he understood it 
as meant to give them that sort of assurance & 
satisfaction & to say otherwise now would be a 
deception on them, he was for the Pres's using 
such expressions as should neither affirm his 
right to make such a declr. to foreign nations, 
nor yield it. R. & myself opposed the right of 
the Presidt. to declare anything future on the 
qu. shall there or shall there not be war ? & 
that no such thing was intended, that H's 
constrn. of the effect of the proclam. would 
have been a determn. of the question of the 
guarantee^ which we both denied to have in- 
tended, & I had at the time declared the 
Executive incompetent to. R. said he meant 
that forn. natns. should understand it as an 
intimation of the Pr's opn. that neutrality would 
be our interest. I declared my meaning to 
have been that forn. nations should understand 

* This was the guarantee in the Treaty of Alliance with 
France, by which the United States agreed, in case France became en- 
gaged in a defensive war, to protect the French West Indies. 
In this case France had declared war against Great Britain. 



138 CABINET MEETINGS 

no such thing, that on the contrary I would 
have chosen them to be doubtful & to come & 
bid for our neutrality. I admitted the Presidt. 
havg. reed, the natn. at the close of Congr. in 
a state of peace, was bound to preserve them 
in that state till Congr. shd. meet again, & 
might proclaim anything which went no farther, 
the Pres. decld. he never had an idea that he 
could bind Congress agt. declarg. war, or that 
anything containd. in his proclmn. could look 
beyd. the first day of their meeting. his main 
view was to keep our people in peace, he apolo- 
gized for the use of the term neutrality in his 
answers, & justified it by having submitted 
the first of them (that to the merchts. wherein 
it was used) to our considn., & we had not 
objected to the term, he concluded in the end 
that Colo. H. should prepare a paragraph on 
this subject for the speech, & it should then be 

considered. we were here called to dinner. 

After dinner the renvoi of Genet was pro- 
posed by himself. I opposed it on these topics. 
France the only nation on earth sincerely our 



CABINET MEETINGS 139 

friend. - - the measure so harsh a one that no 
precedt. is producd. where it has not been fol- 
lowed by war - - our messenger has now been 
gone 84 days,* conseqiy. we may hourly expect 
the return & to be relieved by their revocr. of 
him. were it now resolved on, it would be 8 
or 10 days before the matter on which the 
order shd. be founded could be selected, arranged, 
discussed, & forwarded, this wd. bring us 
within 4 or 5 days of the meeting of Congress, 
wd. it not be better to wait & see how the 
pulse of that body, new as it is, would beat— 
they are with us now, probably, but such a step 
as this may carry many over to Genet's side. - - 
Genet will not obey the order. &c. &c. the 
Presidt. asked me what I would do if Genet 
sent the accusn. to us to be communicd, to 



* At a meeting of the cabinet held August 15th the Secretary 
of the Treasury had been authorized to obtain a vessel either by hire 
or purchase, to be sent express to France with the dispatches to 
Gouverneur Morris, U. S. Minister to that country asking France 
to recall the objectionable minister Genet. The dispatches were 
ready August 23d. If the eighty-four days absence is correct 
the messenger must have sailed August 26th. 



I40 CABINET MEETINGS 

Congr. as he threatd. in the Ire. to Moultrie ? 
I sd. I wd. not send it to Congr. but eithr. put 
it in the newsp. or send it back to him to be 
publd. if he pleased, other questions & answers 
were put & answered in a quicker altercation 
than I ever before saw the President use. - - 
Hamilton was for the renvoi, spoke much of 
the dignity of the nation, that they were now 
to form their character, that our conduct now 
would tempt or deter other forn. min. from 
treatg. us in the same manner, touched on the 
Pr's personal feelings— did not believe Fr. wd. 
make it a cause of war, if she did we ought 
to do what was right & meet the consequences. 
H. Knox on the same side, & said he thot. it 
very possible Mr. Genet would either declare 
us a departmt. of France, or levy troops here & 
endeavor to reduce us to obedce. - - R. of my 
opn., & argued chiefly on the resurrection of 
popularity to Genet, which might be prodd. by 
this measure, that at present he was dead in the 
public opn. if we would but leave him so. the 
Presidt. lamented there was not an unanimity 



CABINET MEETINGS 141 

among us, that as it was we had left him exactly 
where we found him. be so it ended. 

Nov. 21. we met at the President's, the 
manner of explaining to Congress the inten- 
tions of the Proclmn. was the matter of debate. 
E. R. produced his way of stating it. this ex- 
pressed it's views to have been i . to keep our 
citizens quiet. 2. to intimate to foreign nations 
that it was the Pr's opn. that the interests & 
disposns. to this country were for peace. Ham- 
ilton produced his statement in which he declared 
his intention to be to say nothing which could 
be laid hold of for any purpose, to leave the 
proclamation to explain itself. He entered 
pretty fully into all the argumentation of 
Paciticus,''' he justified the right of the Presidt. 
to declare his opinion for a future neutrality ^ & 
that there existed no circumstances to oblige 
the US. to enter into the war on account of 
the guarantee, and in agreeing to the proclmn. 

* A series of articles defending the power of the President to 
issue a proclamation of neutrality written by Hamilton under the 
name Pacificus had been appearing in the Federalist papers. 



142 CABINET MEETINGS 

he meant it to be understood as conveying both 
those declarns., viz, neutrality, & that the casus 
foederis on the guarantee did not exist, he 
admitted the Congress might notwithstanding 
declare war notwithstg. these declrs. of the 
Presidt., in like manner they might declare war 
in the face of a treaty, & in direct infraction 
of it. among other positions laid down by him, 
this was with great positiveness, that the constn. 
having given power to the Presidt. & Senate to 
make treaties, they might make a treaty of 
neutrality which should take from Congress the 
right to decalre war in that particular case, and 
that under the form of a treaty they might 
exercise any powers whatever, even those ex- 
clusively given by the constn. to the H. of 
representatives. R. opposed this position, & 
seemed to think that where they undertook to 
do acts by treaty (as to settle a tariff of duties) 
which were exclusively given to the legislature, 
that an act of the legislature would be neces- 
sary to confirm them, as happens in England 
when a treaty interferes with duties establd. by 



CABINET MEETINGS 143 

law. - - I insisted that in givg. to the Prest. & 
Senate a power to make treaties, the constn. 
meant only to authorize them to carry into 
effect by way of treaty any powers they might 
constitutionally exercise. I was sensible of the 
weak points in this position, but there were 
still weaker in the other hypotheses, and if it 
be impossible to discover a national measure of 
authority to have been given by this clause, I 
would rather suppose that the cases which my 
hypothesis would leave unprovided, were not 
thought of by the Convention, or if thought 
of, could not be agreed on, or were thought on 
and deemed unnecessary to be invested in the 
government. of this last description were 
treaties of neutrality, treaties of offensive & de- 
fensive &c. in every event I would rather 
construe so narrowly as to oblige the nation to 
amend and thus declare what powers they could 
agree to yield, than too broadly & indeed so 
broadly as to enable the Executive and Senate 
to do things which the constn. forbid, on the 
question Which form of explaining the principles 



144 CABINET MEETINGS 

of the proclmn. should be adopted ? I declared 
for R's, tho' it gave to that instrumt. more 
objects than I had contemplated. K, declared 
for H's. the Presidt. said he had had but one 
object, the keeping our people quiet till Con- 
gress should meet, that nevertheless to declare 
he did not mean a declr. of neutrality in the 
technical sense of the phrase might perhaps be 
crying peccavi, before he was charged, how- 
ever he did not decide between the two 

draughts. 

Nov. 23. at the President's, present K. 
R. & Th: J.* subject, the heads of the speech, 
one was, a proposition to Congress to fortify the 
principal harbors. I opposed the expediency of 
the general government's undertaking it, & the 
expediency of the President's proposing it. it 
was amended by substituting a proposition to 
adopt means for enforcg. respect to the jurisdn. 
of the US. within its waters, it was proposed to 
recommend the establishmt. of a military 
academy. t I objected that none of the specified 

* Hamilton was ill and unable, to attend. 

-j- West Point grew out of the movement here given an impetus. 



CABINET MEETINGS 145 

powers given by the constn. to Congress would 
authorize this, it was therefore referred for 
further considn. & inquiry. K. was for both 
proposns. R. agt. the former, but said nothing 
as to the latter, the Presidt. acknold. he had 
doubted of the expedcy. of undertakg. the 
former, and as to the latter, tho' it would be a 
good thing, he did not wish to bring on any- 
thing which might generate heat & ill humor, 
it was agreed that Rand, should draw the 
speech & I the messages. 

Nov. 28. we met at the President's. 

I read over a list of the papers copying to 
be communicated to Congress on the subject of 
Mr. Genet, it was agreed that Genet's Ire. of 
Aug. 13. to the President, mine of Aug. 16. 
and Genet's of Nov. 1 4'-' to myself & the atty. 

*The following letter is reprinted from the Connecticut Courant of 
December 2nd, 1793. 

New York, Nov. 14, 1794. 

2nd year of the French Republic. 
Sir : 

I believe I ought to communicate to you the copy of a letter, 

which I have just written to the Attorney General of the United 
States, to demand of him, that Messrs. Jay and King, the one Chief 



146 CABINET MEETINGS 

genl. desiring a prosecution of Jay & King 
should not be sent to the legislature: on a 
general opn. that the discussion of the fact 
certified by Jay & King had better be left to 
the channel of the newspapers, & in the private 
hands in which it now is than for the Presidt. 
to meddle in it, or give room to a discussion of 
it in Congress. 

Justice, and the other a Senator of the United States, who have pub- 
lished in the newspapers a libel against me, should be presented at the 
Federal Court. I have to this moment omitted nothing to ascertain 
the falsity of the perfidious imposture, to which the Gentlemen have 
not been ashamed to add their names. It is with this view, I ventured 
to write to the President of the United States ; it is with this view 
that my friends have called in many papers upon Mr. Jay and Mr. 
King, to produce the proofs of their assertion ; but the answer which 
you are charged to make me. Sir, being as indecisive as the silence of 
these Gentlemen was profound, a judicial enquiry alone remains for 
me to confound those who have traduced me, both as a delegate of the 
French people, and as an individual. This satisfaction will be the 
most agreeable I can obtain, for I have only wished for the esteem of 
a free and virtuous people, of whatsoever country they might be ; it 
is doubtless grievous to see at this day calumny bent upon persuing me, 
and the benevolence of a people whom I revere, surprised from me, 
as well as that of their first magistrate. But what will be my satisfac- 
tion, when truth alone shall force those, who now misconstrue both 
my intentions and my principles, to do justice to my courage, my un- 
shaken patriotism, and the purity of my conduct. 

Accept my respects, 
Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State. Genet. 



CABINET MEETINGS 147 



E. R. had prepared a draught of the Speech, 
the clause recommending fortifications was left 
out, but that for a military academy was inserted. 
I opposed it, as unauthorized by the constitn. 
H. & K. approved it without discussion. E. R. 
was for it, saying that the words of the constn. 
authorizing Congress to lay taxes &c. for the 
common defence^ might comprehend it. the 
President said he would not chuse to recom- 
mend anything against the constn., but if it was 
doubtful, he was so impressed with the necessity 
of this measure, that he would refer it to 
Congress, & let them decide for themselves 
whether the constn. authorized it or not. It 
was therefore left in. I was happy to see that 
R. had, by accident, used the expression '* our 
republic " in the speech. the President how- 
ever made no objection to it, and so as much as 
it had disconcerted him on a former occasion 
with me, it was now put into his own mouth to 
be pronounced to the two houses of legislature. 

No material alterations were proposed or 
made in any part of the draught. 



148 CABINET MEETINGS 

After dinner, I produced the draught of 
messages on the subject of France & England, 
proposing that that relative to Spain should be 
subsequent & secret. 

H. objected to the draught in toto. said 
that the contrast drawn between the conduct of 
France & England amounted to a declr. of war. 
he denied that Fr. had ever done us favors, that 
it was mean for a nation to acknolege favors, 
that dispositions of the people of this country 
towards France he considered as a serious 
calamity, that the Executive ought not by an 
echo of this language to nourish that disposn. in 
the people, that the offers in commerce made 
us by France were the offspring of the moment, 
of circumstances which wd. not last, & it was 
wrong to receive as permanent, things merely 
temporary, that he could demonstrate that Gr. 
Br. shewed us more favors than France, in 
complaisance to him I whittled down the ex- 
pressions without opposition, struck out that of 
" favors antient & recent" from France, softened 
some terms & omitted some sentiments re- 



CABINET MEETINGS 149 

specting Gr. Br. he still was against the whole, 
but insisted that at any rate it should be a 
secret communication, because the matters it 
stated were still depending, these were i . the 
inexecution of the treaty, 2. the restraining our 
corn commerce to their own ports & those of 
their friends. Knox joined Hamilton in every- 
thing. Randolph was for the communications, 
that the documents respecting the ist. should 
be given in as public, but that those respecting 
the 2d. should not be given to the legislature 
at all but kept secret. I began to tremble 
now for the whole, lest all should be kept secret. 
I urged especially the duty now incumbent on 
the Presidt. to lay before the legislature & the 
public what had passed on the inexecution of 
the treaty, since Mr. Hammond's answer of 
this month might be considered as the last we 
should ever have ; that therefore it could no 
longer be considered as a negotiation pending. 
I urged that the documents respecting the stop- 
ping our corn ought also to go, but insisted that 
if it should be thot. better to withhold them. 



ISO CABINET MEETINGS 

the restriction should not go to those respecting 
the treaty : that neither of these subjects was 
more in a state of pendency than the recall of 
Mr. Genet, on which nevertheless no scruples 
had been expressed, the Presidt. took up the 
subject with more vehemence than I have seen 
him shew, and decided without reserve that not 
only what had passed on the inexecution of the 
treaty should go in as public (in which H. 
& K. had divided in opinion from R. & myself) 
but also that those respecting the stopping our 
corn should go in as public (wherein H. K. & 
Randolph had been against me) this was the first 
instance I had seen of his deciding on the opn. 
of one against that of three others, which proved 
his own to have been very strong. 



PART III. 



CABINET 
DECISIONS 



Cabinet Decisions. 



Nov. 23, 1793. 

AT sundry meetings of the heads of depart- 
ments & Attorney General from the ist 
to the 2ist of Nov. 1793, at the President's, 
several matters w^ere agreed upon as stated in 
the following letters from the Secretary of 

State, to wit.* 

Nov. 8. Circular letter to the representa- 
tive of France, Gr. Brit., Spain & the U. 
Netherlands, fixing provisorily the extent of 
our jurisdiction into the sea at a sea-league. 

10. Circular d°. to the district attornies, 
notifying the same, & committing to them the 
taking depositions in those cases. 

Same date. Circular to the foreign repre- 
sentatives, notifying how depositions are to be 
taken in those cases. 

^These decisions of the Cabinet reached at the meetings held 
in Germantown are included in the Washington manuscripts in the 
Library of Congress. They were recorded by Jefferson, who 
furnished the list to the President for his information and personal use. 



154 CABINET DECISIONS 



The substance of the preceding letters 
were agreed to by all, & the rough draughts 
were submitted to them & approved. 

Nov. 14. To Mr. Hammond, that the 
U. S. are not bound to restore the Roehampton. 
This was agreed by all, the rough draught was 
submitted to & approved by Col°. Hamilton & 
Mr. Randolph. Genl. Knox was absent on a 
visit to Trenton. 

10. Letters to Mr. Genet & Hammond, 
& the 14. to Mr. Hollingsworth for taking 
depositions in the cases of the Coningham & 
Pilgrim. 

15. D°. to Genet, Hammond & Mr. 
Rawle for deposns. in the case of the William. 

14. D°. to Hollingsworth to ascertain 
whether Mr. Moissonier has passed sentence 
on the Roehampton & Pilgrim. 

These last mentd. letters of the loth, 14th 
& 15 th were as to their substance agreed on by 
all, the draughts were only communicated to 
Mr. Randolph and approved by him. 

Nov. 13. To Mr. Hammond, enquiring 



CABINET DECISIONS 155 



when we shall have an answer on the inexecu- 
tion of the treaty. The substance agreed by all. 
The letter was sent off without communication, 
none of the gentlemen being at Germantown. 

22. To Mr. Genet, returning the com- 
missions of Pennevert & Chervi because not 
addressed to the Presidn. 

Same date. To d°. enquiring whether the 
Lovely lass, Prince William Henry & Jane of 
Dublin have been given up, and if not, requir- 
ing that they be now restored to owners. 

These were agreed to by all as to their 
matter, and the letters themselves were submitted 
before they were sent to the President, the 
Secretary of War & the Attorney General, the 
Secretary of the Treasury absent. 

Same date. To Mr. Gore for authentic 
evidence of Dannery's protest on the President's 
revocation of Duplaine's Exequatur. The sub- 
stance agreed to by all. The letter sent off be- 
fore communication. 



PART IV. 



THE 

FINANCIAL 

DIARY 

ETC. 



The Financial Diary. 



THE so-called " Financial Diary" kept 
by Thomas Jefferson covers a period 
from January ist, 1791 to December 
28th, 1803. It is a combined account book 
and diary, consisting of 192 pages, filled not 
only with farm, household and personal expenses, 
but with a great variety of information and 
observations on matters which interested the 
owner. The original is in the possession of the 
Lenox Library, New York City, having for 
many years been owned by the late Samuel J. 
Tilden. The entries here given, which were 
copied from the original, cover the period from 
October 25th, when the Secretary of State left 
Monticello, to December loth, 1793, which 
was ten days after he had gone into Philadelphia 
from Germantown. A reproduction of a page 
from the book will be found on another page. 



i6o THE FINANCIAL DIART 



gave Maria* 3. 

put into hands of M Randolph jun'. 20. D. to pay expenses of 
removing my furniture from Rocket's to Belvedere, 
left Monticello. 
Oct. 25. pd. oats at Gordons. ,4-|- 

26. do. at Wright's. .3 

27. dinner lodging etc at Gatewood's 2.1 

Fredsbg. barber . 2 5 ferrge etc Chatham . 2 5 Srvt . I 

gave Bob for his expences 3. 

pd Benson breakft. lodg. etc — 7. 57 

pd. for 2 passages in the stage to Alexandria 6. Serv? . i 

28. ferrge at Falmouth .1 
Stafford C. H, breakfast .5 
Colchester, dinner &c. i-i 

Alexandria, barber .25 — lodg. at Wise's, .7 
2 seats in stage to Baltimore 7.66 
29 srvt .2 

Georgetown ferrge .2 

Bladenbg. breakfast .62 

Spuryear .1 dinner 1.43 srvt .2 
30. Baltimore barber .2 srvt .2 

lodging at Storck's 3.66 

Bush, dinner. 1.91 

Susqueha. ferrge and ferrymen .5 
31 ... Rogers's supper & lodging 1.43 srvt. 125 

Elkton breaktest .73 

* Maria Jefferson, the daughter. 

"fin such entries as this, of which there are many, the figure represents 
tens and should be read forty cents, thirty cents, two dollars and ten cents, etc. 



^4. - - - - - - -^^s-^o.' ,1 

'il- - -- ^ . Xj>^f^ '/ Ju^^yi^^^V Cff-i'^it^ f./il As^n^ ./'i^ 

/•^^ ]at.nxxyf fifr- fi/i^ e^-f^. /. z). 

OP ™e Lenox Libkakv, New York C.tv. 



THE FINANCIAL DIART i6i 

Nov. I. Brandy wine, dinner & lodging at Stewart's 1.5 
Chester, breakfast .69 srvt .25 barber .25 
Germantown. pd Hartman Elliot for bringing me from Balti- 
-more 6 days coming & going 30. D. ferriages 3.18=33.18 
[all the preceding travelling expences amount to 77.65] 

4. pd. James wages 8. D. washing .5 srvt 125 

5 . pd for inkpot . I 8 

12. gave the cook at Bockius'* .5 

pd Bockius's bill 11. days ent'. 29.51 

13. pd Gilliams drawing a tooth 4.66 

14. pd Franks the barber 1.125 washing i. 

pd Bockius', second bill 12.03. ^'^^^ 3-33 ^^^ ^°'' board of 
Lapseleyf the office keeper. 

15. pdbarber.25 Jameshh'd exp. 3. table 1.33 slippers 1.25 

1 6. pd. for shoe brushes . 3 1 cutting wood . 2 

17. pd. barber .125 

18. paid for mending lock .2 

gave my note to bank of US, for 875. D @ 60. days;]; 

19. have credit at bank for do. 865. 82 

inclosed to John Ross§ ord.on bank for 100. D. note Sep. 13 

20. pd. Dr. Shippen his ace. in full by ord. on bank for 63.67 
inclosed to mr. Taylor** ord. on bank for 20 D. in a bank bill 
to be sent to Jacob Hollingworth to buy clover seed. 

pd James for hhd exp i . D 
pd Gilliams dentist 2.33 

* Bockius was the landlord of the King of Prussia tavern, Germantown. 
■f- Thomas Lapsley, office keeper for the State Department. 
X See letter to John Kean, cashier of the Bank of the U. S. page 93 
§ See letter page 102 

** See letter to George Taylor, chief clerk of the Department 
of State page loi. 



1 62 THE FINANCIAL DIART 

Nov. 21. inclosed to Jacob HoUingsworth the bank bill for 20. D.* 
22. gave Philip Freneau order on bank for 18.75 *^° '^^'^ 
for myself to Oct. z6.<)i.-\ 6. 
James Madison . . 4.5 

Ambrose Madison . 6. 

for cash I reed, for Jos. Jones 2.25 



18.75 
gave order on bank for 186.36 to be remitted to 
Myers in a post bill to pay the order of Mrs 
Carr. ante. Oct. 19. 

gave order on bank US. for 40. D. in a post bill 
to be remitted to A. Stewart^ to buy sheep 
Patrick Kennon remitted to me an order of Charles 
Smith & CO. on EUiston & Perot for 109.83 due 
to Wm. Short for which I am to credit W. S. 
he inclosed me W. Short's certificates of stock in 
his hands, to be transferred from the office in 
New York to that in Philade in W. S's own name 
so these certificates will not enter into acct. 
between W. S. & myself, 
they are 2800. 6 percents 

2356. 3 percents 

2150. deferred 

7306 

* The letter to Jacob HoUingsworth on page 107. 

-j- This was in payment of subscriptions to the_ National Gazette. 

It suspended publication October 26th, 1793- 
X Letter to Stewart in regard to the purchase of sheep 
will be found on page 1 15. 



THE FINANCIAL DIARY 163 

indorsed Smith & co's bill for 109.83 to bank of US. 
to be collected & entered to my credit, 
pd Mery for horse hire 1.33 
pd Jo. for y^ cord hiccory 2.83 of which 
charge half for the office 
Nov. 23. pd Ingles* in full by ord. on bank 67.03 pd wash's 1.5 
pd for cord of wood 5.33 cutting .6 (half to office 
pd Peter Didierf for 7. pr stock' gs 59 overp'd Jo. on acct 1 1 
pd James hhd exp. 11/24-3/10 = 2 

24. inclosed to Myer J the bank post note for i 86 D. 36 on acct. of 
my assumpsit to him for Mrs. Carr. 

inclosed to A.Stewart a bank post note for 40. D. to buy sheep 

25. James for hhd exp .5 

gave Mrs. Fullarton ord. on bank for 66.67 ^" ^^^^ 
rec'd from bank by Crosby 50. D. 

pd Campbell for books 4. D. pd for lenses 1.5 barber. 375 
pd Wirtz groceries in full 4.48 

29. pd for horse to Phila. .67 washing .75 

30. Wirtz ^ lb. coffee .09 
received for wood remaining 4. D. 

pd Weiss for i 5 days board ofThomas Lapsely office keeper 5 . D 
pd. James hhd exp. 7/2-)- 4 c= i. D 
pd Dr. Logan** for a plough 8. D. 

* It would seem possible that this was meant for Engle, a prominent family of 
Germantown since early in its history. 

t Peter Didier was a farmer of Germantown. Nearly every household carried 
on some industry in addition to the cultivation of the soil and knitting was always an 
important industry of Germantown. 

\ See letter page 119. 

**Dr. George Logan, of Stenton, on the borders of Germantown, was among 
other things a progressive agriculturist, and had constructed a plow on some new princi- 
ple. He obliged his friends by having some made for them. On May 5th, 1793, 
Jefferson wrote James Madison : ' ' I have seen Dr. Logan. Your plows will be done 
in a week and shall be attended to." 



1 64 THE FINANCIAL DIART 

pd. Crosby for pomatum &c 2.22 

do waggonage Germ. T. .5 

pd. coaches from Germ. Town 2.33 

reed, from I.Bringhurst part of note of Aug 3.23 D. (or of 48 D) 

delivered do. 2 peices of New York gold to be changed. 
Dec. 6. pd. T. Lapseley wages as office keeper. 6.13 

pd. Richardson for spectacles 7.8 

pd. Blame acct. for porter 2.17 
Dec. 7. paid coach hire .25 

10. pd. for shaving brush. 125 - salve. 125 



Expenses Department of State 

Estimate of the Expenses of the Department of State/'' 
at Home, for one year, commencing ist. January 1793. 

Dollrs. 

The Secretary of State's salary 3.5°° 

One Chief Clerk's " 800 

3 Clerks — (an additional one will probably be 

requisite) say 2,000 

Clerk for foreign Languages' salary 250 

Office keeper and messenger's '♦ 250 



Stationary of all kinds 240 

Firewood 200 

Office-rent 266, 67 

Newspapers from the different States abt. 20 @ 4 

dollrs 80 

Gazettes from, and Gazettes sent to Am, Ministers 

abroad 25 

Laws of the i Session of the 3d. Congress, to be 

published in 5 newspapers, at about 100 

dollrs. each 500 

Printing an edition of the same, to be distributed 

according to law 700 

For Binding 5° 



Deficiencies in the appropriation of the 
present year, 
for Extra Clerks employed preparing documents 

laid & to be laid before Congress day . 600 

For an index to the Laws of the 2d. Congress . 200 



$2,061,67 



800 



9,661,7 



Department of State 
Deer. 7. 1792. 



Th : Jefferson 



*The above document, found among the Jefferson papers in the Library of Con- 
gress, is of interest as showing the modest scale of public expense in the State 
Department in 1793. As this estimate covers the month in which this office was so 
unexpectedly located in Germantown, it would seem to be appropriately included. 



PART V. 

THE 
ORATION. 



The Oration 



THE deaths of John Adams and Thomas 
Jefferson, occuring as they did on the 
same day, July 4th, 1826, just fifty 
years after the Declaration of Independence, the 
significance of which day was largely due to the 
acts of these two ex-Presidents, aroused the 
deepest feeling throughout the nation. In all 
the leading cities, and in many of the smaller 
towns, meetings were held where the recog- 
nized orator delivered an address commemora- 
tive of the services and virtue of these two 
fathers of the Republic. 

On July I 5th such a meeting was held in 
Germantown, a committee of arrangements, of 
which Benjamin Chew, Jr., was the Secretary, 
was appointed and Walter R. Johnson, 
principal of the Germantown Academy, was 
selected to deliver the address. The public 



lyo THE ORATION 

meeting of the citizens of Germantown, Rox- 
borough, Bristol and Penn townships was held 
on July 2oth. 

Walter R. Johnson, was a young man, 
born in Massachusetts June 21, 1795, a gradu- 
ate of Harvard. He had assumed charge of 
the Academy in 1 8 2 1 , two years after his 
graduation, and continued at its head until 
August 1826. From 1826 to 1836 he was 
connected with the Philadelphia High School, 
and later was identified with many educational 
and scientific projects. He was the first secre- 
tary of the American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science. He was a prolific 
writer, having left no less than fifty papers and 
reports on scientific subjects and twenty or more 
on matters relating to education. He died in 
Washington, D. C, April 26th, 1852. A 
sketch of his life has been published in pamphlet 
form, being a reprint from Barnard's American 
Journal of Education for December, 1858. 

The oration delivered in 1826 does not 
appear among the list of his writings, nor is a 



THE ORATION 171 

copy of it to be found in the Pennsylvania 
Historical Society or our leading Philadelphia 
libraries. It was published in book form by 
the committee in charge of the meeting, in 
1826, and this reprint was made from the copy 
in the possession of the Boston Public Library.* 

Mr. Johnson spoke as follows: 

An occasion for commemorating departed great- 
ness, is a solemn admonition to all that live. The 
reflection that spontaneously rises in every mind, is — 
if the " wise and reverend head " be laid in the dust, 
shall the humble, undistinguished individual hope to 
escape the " numerous ills that flesh is heir to ?" — if he 
who stands foremost among the benefactors of his race, 
finds no exemption from the shafts of fate, shall any 
being of earth count upon the certainty of continued 
existence? Reason — revelation — experience and uni- 
versal nature all forbid. All utter a prophetic warning 
to prepare for the approach o^ the mighty conquer er ! 

But admonitions respecting the shortness of 

* Since the above was written I have found that Dr. William J. 
Campbell, the publisher of this book, has a perfect copy of the address 
in his private library. 



172 THE ORATION 

human life, and the consequent necessity of a continual 
preparation for the final change, are not the only 
duties of one who would do justice to such an occa- 
sion. It is incumbent on him to reflect, that he 
stands in the presence of those who have still the 
prospect of acting some part on the great theatre of 
human affairs ; — that praise of worth in the deceased, 
is valuable, only as it tends to foster like worth in the 
living ; and that as it is no part of his duty to indulge 
the bitterness of censure, so it is equally inconsistent 
with his purpose, to rush into the extravagance of 
encomium ; to place the deceased in an invidious con- 
trast with their survivors; to "praise the dead out of 
hatred to the living," or, " to beat the children with 
the bones of their fathers." He has also to reflect, 
that the names of men whose walk was that of civil 
life, and whose glory was in their intellectual power, 
must be as enduring as the immortal part of their 
nature, in which that power resided ; — that the memory 
of such men will "quietly climb to Heaven," whether 
he, or any of his generation, deign to aid it or not ; — 
and that every attempt to disparage genuine merit, and 
every effort to exalt beyond the due degree, will prove 
alike unavailing. He will recollect that the names of 
wise and patriotic statesmen, are the peculiar property 
of History, — the bright gems with which she illuminates 



THE ORATION 173 

her fairest pages ; that their scutcheons stand not in 
ostentatious relief upon the frieze of " temples made 
with hands ;" nor their deeds on records written in 
blood. Much less does their fair fame depend on the 
breath of a passing panegyrick. It will dwell in the 
hearts, in the memories, in the unfailing — the ever-in- 
creasing gratitude of millions, who must in successive 
ages arrive on the shores of being, to enjoy the bless- 
ings which by labour, anxiety, genius and self devo- 
tion, their fathers have obtained; and of millions, who 
will assuredly obey the dictates of their nature, in 
cherishing the honest reputation of all the patriots who 
conferred liberty and happiness on their country. 

The mournful, yet grateful duty demanded by 
the occasion, — the duty which the American people 
are every where assembling to perform, is one which 
never before fell to the lot of nation. The time, 
therefore, the incidents, and the characters ; — the 
history, the condition and the prospects of the mighty 
empire, with which they were connected, all demand 
utterance, all rush with overwhelming force upon the 
mind, filling it with images which language labours in 
vain to delineate. The spontaneous effusion, either 
of the grief J or the gratitude of a whole nation, is, in it- 
self, an object the most sublime in the moral world. 
With the elevation of feeling occasioned by the latter 



174 THE ORATION 

sentiment, recent occurrences have made us all 
familiar ; but of the former, our country has happily 
not before been a witness, since the time when the 
sounds of lamentation came from the hallowed shades 
of Mount Vernon. And who, that could then lisp 
the name of Washington, does not remember the 
solemn event, which marked the closing year of the 

last century ? 

In order to convey some faint conception of the 

exalted characters, and of the mournful incidents 
which we commemorate, permit me to carry your im- 
aginations back, for a few days only, to the morning 
of that jubilee whose approach was saluted with 
universal demonstrations of joy ; — to that day, whose 
annual recurrence is greeted wherever throughout the 
world the cause of freedom finds a votary ; — to that 
day, on which, wherever our stripes and our stars are 
found, these emblems of our union, — these ensigns of 
our prosperity, are sent up to the breezes of heaven, 
to manifest the gratitude and exultation of freemen, 
for the deeds of their sires. 

Suppose that on that day, an American citizen 
who was born on the. fourth of July seventeen hundred 
and seventy-sixj had called around him his children's 
children, to rejoice in the festivities of the natal day 
both of their grand-parent and of their country. 



THE ORATION 



175 



Imagine that you hear them inquire — what were the 
great events which gave rise to the practice of annually- 
convening at the festive board, on the martial field, in 
the civic hall, or the sacred sanctuary to celebrate this 
joyous anniversary. Behold how the countenance of 
each youthful listener glows with ardour, as his aged 
relative proceeds in the recital of the gallant deeds 
exhibited in days long past; — in times so /^«^ gone by, 
that to the youthful apprehension, they begin to con- 
stitute a part of the ages of romance. Imagine also 
that you hear them inquire, with all the intense 
curiosity that belongs to their years, what godlike 
men are those, around whom all are crowding, with 
eager impatience, to pay the homage of gratitude and 
affection ? whom every tongue joins to bless and every 
hand is stretched forth to greet or to venerate? — 
whose locks seem whitened with the frosts of a hun- 
dred winters, — whose frames are bending beneath the 
accumulated weight of years, but whose countenances 
still kindle with enthusiasm at the mention of this 
^^ great and glorious day'' How do we hear such 
applauses lavished or mortal beings ? We see child- 
hood and youth, and manhood and age, — we see the 
great and the learned, and the virtuous and the pious, 
with every humbler rank of their fellow citizens, 
coming with their united heartfelt offerings and con- 



176 THE ORATION 

gratulations, crying, " Honour to their grey hairs, and 
peace and serenity to the evening of their eventful days!'' 
Or, are they indeed not mortals ? Are they some of 
those heroes or demigods, who, (we have read) did, 
some centuries ago, obtain immortahty ? and do we 
see them stand here, clothed in the same bodies in 
which they acquired their title to perpetual existence ? 

Let us now suppose that he who was celebrating 
the semi-centennial anniversary of his birth-day, 
showed to these pledges of his children's love, the 
usual indulgence of age, and condescended to set them 
right in this matter, so interesting to their feelings, by 
a rehearsal equally interesting to his own. 

He then relates to them, that he cannot on every 
point speak with the certainty of personal knowledge, 
for that these men have come down from a period 
anterior by a third part of a century at least — by the 
full time of one generation — to the day of his birth ; 
but that his own parent, who had now been for years 
numbered with the dead, used sometimes to gratify 
him with an account of the early lives of these very 
men, who were his cotemporaries and intimates. 

Of the two, he continues, whom you behold at 
this moment surrounded by the greatest crowds of ad- 
miring attendants, he who seems the elder, and rather 
the more infirm, whose stature is somewhat below the 






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THE ORATION 177 

usual height, but whose form even now exhibits the 
marks of a vigour that fitted it for the abode of a 
magnanimous spirit ; — whom you see clothed in plain 
habiliments, approaching, in the degree of their sim- 
plicity, to those which distinguished the unostentatious 
pilgrim fathers ; — this patriarch, whom you see sur- 
rounded by his countrymen of all classes, and whose 
accents are, with peculiar veneration, treasured up by 
those who know him best, by those of his own 
vicinity — is a lineal descendant from those pilgrims 
whose garb his own seems to resemble, — from those 
pilgrims, who, flying from the storms and persecutions 
of the elder world, brought to these shores, the 
sternest virtue, and the most inflexible love of liberty. 
He drew his first breath more than fourscore 
and ten years ago, on that iron-bound coast, which had 
proved so inhospitable to his ancestors, but which 
their patience, industry, frugality, and above all their 
love of learning and of liberty had, previously to his 
birth, converted into a smiling abode for thousands of 
generous and high-spirited freemen. I need not 
assure you, that a thirst for knowledge appeared with 
the dawn of his understanding, and that although his 
lot had not been cast among the sons of affluence, 
but in the honourable class of respected yeomanry, 
yet he despaired not in early youth, of attaining that 



1 78 THE ORATION 

intellectual improvement which might place him in 
the rank for which, he felt, the God of nature had in- 
tended him. He became, in a degree, the artificer 
of his own fortune, even in the article of his 
education, and furnished an ennobling example 
of foregoing the gratification of youthful pride 
and passion, for the sake of procuring the invalu- 
able blessings of wisdom. He pursued the course 
of liberal studies adopted in that ancient seat of 
learning, which it had been the first care of the pilgrim 
fathers to found and endow. He passed with honour, 
and with an independent reliance on his own genius 
and exertions, through the various departments of 
literary duty, and there drank at the unadulterated 
fountains of Grecian and Roman lore, the draughts of 
enthusiasm for liberty, which gave the prevailing 
temperament to his mind. 

In selecting the profession in which to employ 
his talents, he chose that which usually leads through 
the severest mental toil, anxiety and long sufferings to 
the highest dignities and preferments. But he chose 
it in reference to the power which it might put into 
his hands, for maintaining the political privileges, no 
less than for defending the private rights of his country- 
men. The bar witnessed astonishing efforts of his 
genius, but the habits of energetick publick speaking 



THE ORATION 179 

which he acquired in courts of justice and carried to 
the popular assembly, the council and the senate 
house, proved more important than any ability in mere 
judicial pleading, which could possibly have been ex- 
hibited. His defence of certain aggressors upon 
publick order, when they were exposed to suffer too 
severely from popular indignation, is an evidence of 
his strong sense of justice, and of professional duty. — 
Rising rapidly to distinction as a jurist, he attracts to 
himself the regards of the constituted authorities of 
his native province, and subsequently receives the 
appointment of chief of its highest tribunal; but de- 
clines the honourable distinction, and with a success 
which seems beyond the grasp of human intellect, de- 
votes himself wholly to the service of his country. 
Placed by the suffrages of his fellow citizens, in the 
grand council of the province, he soon justifies their 
choice, by gaining the confidence of the sons of 
liberty throughout the continent, and, what may be 
regarded as an equal honour, draws upon himself the 
marked displeasure of those who still worship the idol 
of regal power. 

When the time had arrived for taking the final 
step that was to sever a portion from the dominion of 
Britain, and to form it into a new empire, this vener- 
able sage was among the foremost, boldest assertors of 



i8o THE ORATION 

the rights of man, and the advocate of the most de- 
cisive measures, demanded by that hour of "perilous 
magnanimity." 

But, exclaims a youth, it is time to inform who is 
that other venerable man, towards whom you have 
directed our attention ; — he, whose stature is greater, 
but whose frame is less fitted to endure the burden of 
time, than that of the former; whose bearing and de- 
portment indicate a different origin, — whose habits 
and demeanour seem to be those of a hereditary 
possessor of ample fortune, of which he disposes with 
a munificence which bespeaks the liberality of his 
nature. 

" That^ continues the aged narrator, is a de- 
scendant of those enterprising adventurers, who in the 
earliest period of emigration established the prosperous 
community which they named in honour of their 
Virgin Queen; — an ^^ ancient dominion" of generous, 
hospitable, high-minded patriots, — a region, that claims 
and obtains the honourable appellation of the nurse of 
great men. 

This venerable patriarch, too, over whom more 
than fourscore and three years have rolled their event- 
ful course, was from his youth the votary of science. 
He laid broad and deep the foundations of greatness, 
by his early devotion to every thing manly and en- 



THE ORATION i8i 

nobling in the pursuits of youth. He came forth to 
the world and its duties, with all the attainments that 
could tend to ensure success in his future career. He 
too pursued the same profession in which we have 
seen his illustrious compatriot winning his way to 
eminence, and he too pursued it without artifice and 
without chicanery, — it being a uniform maxim of his 
practice, never to engage in a cause^ which^ after the 
most rigid examination, he did not ascertain to be just. 
Called to the councils of his native province when 
scarcely arrived at manhood, he brought to her service 
the fruits of laborious research into the laws and insti- 
tutions of his country. 

Though young in years he was already old in 
useful attainments and solid wisdom. He became emi- 
nent in the walks of legislation, not by idle discussions, 
and bombastic harangues, but by deep and patient in- 
vestigation into every principle of political duty. 

While in the house of Burgesses, the insidious 
propositions of Lord North, tending to disunite the 
confederated provinces, and to divert their attention 
from the real points at issue between themselves and 
the parent country, being presented for consideration, 
afforded the young statesman an opportunity for dis- 
playing the feelings of the patriot and the acuteness of 
the politician. His mind was too comprehensive in 



i82 THE ORATION 

its views to admit the adoption of temporizing ex- 
pedients. 

He agreed in the sentiment of Hawley, as reiter- 
ated by Henry, that the period had arrived when '■'■we 
must fight." " For ourselves," said he to the crafty 
minister of Britain, " we have exhausted every mode 
of application, which our invention could suggest as 
proper and promising. We have decently remonstrated 
with parliament ; — they have added new injuries to the 
old. We have wearied our king with applications ; — 
he has not deigned to answer us. We have appealed 
to the native honour and justice of the British nation; — 
their efforts in our favour have hitherto been inef- 
fectual. What then remains to be done ? That we 
commit our injuries to the even-handed justice of that 
Being who doth no wrong, earnestly beseeching him 
to illuminate the councils, and prosper the endeavours 
of those, to whom America hath confided her hopes." 

Hitherto the two master spirits of the revolution 
had been known to each other, only as distant co- 
operators in the work of resistance to the aggressions 
of British ministers ; but now the period approaches 
when they are to act in concert, and the metropolis of 
Pennsylvania is the scene where they and their com- 
peers are to display their energies, and to build their 
imperishable renown. But do not imagine that the 



THE ORATION 183 



august body in which they were about to appear was 
an arena where mere rhetorical gladiators were allowed 
to show their skill, for the amusement or astonishment 
ot wondering constituents. The contest, which the 
Virginian legislator of that dav found it necessary to 
maintain, was against the fears of the timid, the con- 
scientious scruples of the pacific, and the deep seated 
predilections for the parent country, which many still 
continued to call by the endearing appellation of 
'■^ home.'' Even the zeal and enthusiasm of the eastern 
patriot threw into the hands of the other more than 
his proportion of arduous and responsible duty. For 
some of the provinces still hesitated, still clung to the 
hope that conciliatory measures were possible, and 
such were likely to look, and did look, with an appre- 
hension of rashness, upon those who came, with all 
their irritated feelings, from the scenes which had been 
recently acting in Fanueil Hall, — around the Liberty 
tree, — on the plain of Lexington, and on the heights 
of Bunker. The representatives of the thirteen differ- 
ent communities, composing that august assemblage, 
though all actuated by the purest patriotism, partook, 
of necessity, of various feelings and inclinations ac- 
cording to the peculiar circumstances and interests 
which distinguished the districts to which they 
respectively belonged. All were, however, to be 



1 84 THE ORATION 

wrought upon and moulded, to receive the impress of 
the times, by those who foresaw the future dignity and 
greatness of their country, when she should be disen- 
thralled from the shackles of foreign power. 

The due degree of unanimity is finally produced, 
and the two worthies are associated to prepare that 
declaration, which is to fix forever, the destinies of a 
continent, and to modify those of a world. It becomes 
a matter of amicable controversy between them, which 
shall undertake the honourable task of penning the 
instrument, — each being disposed to transfer it to the 
other. At length, however, the elder succeeds in in- 
ducing his associate first to try his hand ; — and so de- 
lighted is he with its production, that he agrees at 
once to report it, with a single verbal alteration. I 
cannot forbear pausing to invite your admiration to 
that magnanimity, — the index of true greatness, which 
disposed men, already becoming rivals in worth and 
in reputation, thus freely and ingenuously to acknowl- 
edge each other's transcendent merits. This disposi- 
tion they have brought down through the most stormy 
times of political fanaticism, and are, at this moment, 
bearing in their bosoms the most cordial esteem and 
respect for each other. All attempts to embitter their 
evening hours, and to scatter thorns in their down- 
ward path to the tomb, have proved unavailing. The 



THE ORATION 185 



great man has in each heart, triumphed over the little 
animosity. Each of the rival patriots having filled the 
world with his own fame, seems only anxious lest jus- 
tice should not be done to the name of his venerated 
compatriot ; so that throughout the happy borders of 
America, no two individuals can be found, who main- 
tain for each other a more unbroken friendship than 
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. And shall I 
then attempt to mar your respect for these venerated 
characters? Forbid it Heaven! It were a political 
sacrilege of the deepest, foulest dye. Suffice it to say, 
that the best of men and the best of friends may 
sometimes differ in opinion, on topics of high moment, 
without implying any want of uprightness or of 
patriotism on either part. 

You will find, on the examination of your 
country's records, how large a space both of these 
patriarchs have filled in the proud estimation of their 
fellow citizens. You will find that the elder, soon 
after the decisive step before related, had been taken, 
and while the struggle was still pending, was deputed 
to make known the justice of our cause, and the con- 
dition of our country, at the various courts in Europe. 

The appearance of the plain citizen of a republick 
wrested from the grasp of British power, was an event 
so singular as to be regarded rather as a curious 



1 86 THE ORATION 

phenomenon, than an object of political importance. 
The sounds of Liberty were then unfrequent in the 
European world ; and especially, when wafted across 
the Atlantick, they seemed so new, so strange, so full 
of improbability, that men scarcely credited their 
senses. Even in the Belgic provinces, the region 
where the love and sympathy for liberty were strong- 
est, — the region where our cause ought to have met 
the most ready and decided approbation, the influence 
of Britain, had so far paralyzed the energies of patriot- 
ism, that the able memorial which this champion of 
our revolution and government, presented to their 
High Mightinesses, the States General, remained a 
full year without an answer ; remained, in fact, until 
by his amenity of deportment he had won the affec- 
tions of the people, and by his spirited representations, 
had roused towns, cities and provinces to demand the 
formation of an alliance, and the virtual recognition ot 
our independence. This point, however, he finally 
attained, and opened the way to confidence, among 
those who possessed the sinews of government, the 
disposable funds, so much needed by our infant 
nation. Thus at the moment when the immortal 
Franklin was laying the foundation of a durable 
friendship in every circle of the French metropolis, 
the venerated Adams was establishing our national 



THE ORATION 187 

credit among the wealthy sons of the Batavian Repub- 
llck, where the simplicity of his manners, the ingenu- 
ousness of his conduct, and his ardent enthusiasm for 
liberty, gained, both for himself and for his country, 
all the advantages which a republican could desire. 
Nor was his great associate of 1776, without his share 
in the glory of extending his country's reputation, and 
of securing her interests on foreign shores. When the 
gallantry of our fathers had won the way to peace and 
tranquility at home, the illustrious Jefferson and 
Adams were again associated, for the formation of 
treaties, and the extension of national reputation. As 
the successor of Franklin at the court of Versailles, 
the name of Jefferson was at once in the mouths of all 
France. Nor did he disappoint the expectations of 
those to whom he was accredited, any more than of 
the American people. His society was sought by the 
versatile savans of Paris, as well as the gayer circles of 
Versailles, and while he improved his own taste for 
the arts that embellish or dignify human nature, he 
found it practicable to add to the good opinion re- 
specting American intellect, which Frenchmen had 
conceived from the wit and the wisdom of Franklin. 
But diplomatick duties were never neglected. The 
high trust of establishing commercial relations was at 
this period a vital matter to his country ; to this were 



THE ORATION 



his best efforts directed, and in this was he successful. 
But besides fulfilHng the high and responsible 
duties committed to these men, of placing our 
foreign relations on the most favourable footing, each 
found occasion by the exercise of his masterly pen to 
spread far and wide the knowledge of our domestick 
institutions, characters, and habits ; and to hold up to 
the admiration of the world, the wisdom, no less than 
the heroism, of his countrymen. Of the "Defence of 
the Constitutions," and the "Notes on Virginia" — the 
one was written and the other published while their 
respective authors were in Europe, and tended not a 
little to strengthen the respect which prevailed for the 
characters of themselves and their native land. The 
principles, however, which, as the apostles of a new 
political faith, they proclaimed abroad, were not 
suffered to remain without exemplifications at home. 
They felt that giving a practical illustration of their 
republican tenets, was the surest mode of removing all 
doubts as to the possibility of entire self-government, 
by an enlightened people. Such exemplifications they 
gave, by each furnishing the draught of a constitution 
for his native state. The convention which framed 
that of Massachusetts, placed the experienced Adams 
at its head, and to his powerful mind was the state 
indebted for a great portion of the instrument, under 



THE ORATION 189 



which that community continued to enjoy unexampled 
prosperity for forty years ; and as evidence of the 
soundness and popularity of its provisions, may be 
adduced the fact, that when the same sage was, after 
that lapse of time, again elected to preside in a council 
for its revision, a very few points only, and those in- 
volving no change of political principles, were found 
to require alteration; and of the few amendments pro- 
posed by the convention, scarcely more than one half 
were adopted by the primary assemblies of the people. 
The constitution prepared for Virginia was received 
by the convention, at too late a period of its delibera- 
tions, to admit of being considered in detail ; but the 
preamble of Jefferson was adopted and prefixed to the 
constitution just completed by that body. 

But it is not in the formation, the administration, 
or the defence of constitutions, only, that the republi- 
can spirit of these patriots has been manifested. 
Their doctrines respecting the means of maintaining 
free institutions, are not less important than the 
principles of justice and equality on which those 
institutions are founded. They have ever felt that a 
democratick government without general intelligence 
is a political absurdity. Hence the feelings and 
efforts of both, have been strongly engaged in the 
cause of diffusive and popular, as well as of liberal^ 



I90 THE ORATION 

education. The first three years of the manhood of 
Adams were devoted to the duties of classical instruc- 
tion, and his valuable library has within a few years 
been presented to the town in which he resides for the 
more extensive diffusion of the treasures of knowledge 
it contains. The latter days of Jefferson have been 
almost exclusively devoted to the immediate superin- 
tendence of the concerns of mental cultivation. I 
need not mention the name of the flourishing 
University, towards which parents and youth are 
alike turning their eyes with the fond hope of realizing 
its blessings. 

This, then, (continues the aged narrator,) is the 
summary of the resemblances between these great and 
good patriarchs — both derived their being from races 
of hardy and spirited yeomen, whose ancestors had 
sought on these shores an abode for religious, moral 
and political freedom. Both were educated in the 
most liberal manner. Both devoted themselves to the 
same honourable profession, and both pursued it on 
the most exalted principles. Both attempted to im- 
prove the condition and practice of the law, the one 
by his revision of common and statute^ and the other 
by his able dissertation on tki^ .canon ^nd feudal laws. 
Both had been honoured by their fellow citizens, with 
high marks of confidence, in being placed in their re- 



THE ORATION 191 



spective local legislatures, before being sent to the 
Congress of 1776. Both were on the committee of 
that body to consider the propositions of Lord North. 
Both were on the committee, and they alone were the 
subcommittee to prepare the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. Both were appointed on the commission for 
proposing an alliance to France, — both on that for 
determining the conditions of the treaty of peace with 
England. Both were in 1784, furnished with plenipo- 
tentiary commissions addressed to the several courts 
of Europe for concluding treaties of commerce. Both 
were, after their return, in high stations in the govern- 
ment, while administered by our beloved Washington. 
Both furnished draughts of constitutions to their 
native states, and both their proposals were, in part, 
at least, adopted. Both in succession attained the 
first, after having filled the second office in the gift ot 
their country. Each had the happiness to find his 
administration approved by many wise and good men, 
and each the unhappiness to see many others equally 
wise and good arrayed against it. Both saw, during 
their terms of office, the rapid progress of their country 
towards power and respect, and both have retired to 
private life, to enjoy the esteem of each other, and the 
boundless admiration of their fellow men. Both have 
seen portions of their policy made the ground-work of 



192 THE ORATION 

every administration which has followed, and both 
have perceived other portions to be rejected, as no 
longer applicable to the state of the nation. Both 
have, in their retirement, done something towards 
diffusing right principles among their fellow citizens, 
both have placed their extensive libraries in situations 
to become sources of most valuable instruction ; — both 
have been concerned in the superintendence of educa- 
tion, and both are living to witness this jubilee. They 
seem, indeed, the very Castor and Pollux of American 
History. One more coincidence only is wanting to 
complete their parallel. But, hark! my children; — 
what sounds do I perceive ? What ! a groan of 
anguish on this happy day of universal joy ? It is 
impossible ! But, ah ! it is too true. It comes again ; 
it comes from that numerous group of the great and 
the good, — of the sons of science and of patriotism 
whom you have seen crowding around the southern 
sage. And, listen ! It breaks into faint but audible 
articulations. — "/ have done for my country ^ and for all 
mankind^ all that I could, and I now resign my soul to 
Gody and my daughter to my country." 

" ikfy daughter to my country!'' — Generous souls 
of freemen, record, accept the dying bequest, before 
his sainted spirit shall be compelled to enter against 
you, an accusation of foul ingratitude ! 



THE ORATION 193 

But what commotion do I behold around the 
form of the eastern patriarch ? Is this, indeed, a day 
of miracles? While, in accordance with his own 
prophetick anticipations, the mingling millions of his 
countrymen are with " pomp, shows, games, guns, 
bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of the 
continent to the other, solemnizing the day," his 
thread of life, too, seems dwindling to nothing, and 
his soul just ready to take her flight.—" JVhat mean," 
he cries, '' all these sounds of mirth and exultation^— 
Oh I yes, it is the great and glorious fourth of july ! 
Godblessit; God bless you all. independence forever!" 
Lo, there the " ruling passion strong in death ; "—too 
strong alas for his brittle tenure of existence. The 
impulse of patriotick emotion is beyond the endurance 
of enfeebled nature. In a disembodied state only, can 
those exalted virtues dwell, with full fruition. 

Freemen of America, you have seen the two de- 
voted apostles of liberty and of your country, ascend- 
ing at once to their final abode. United in life, un- 
divided in death, they are gone to their last assembling 
with all the good and virtuous of their land;— gone to 
assist at the only Congress which is more august than 
that which proclaimed your Independence ;— gone 
amidst a radiance of glory that dazzles the gaze which 
its splendour invites. 



194 THE ORATION 



But let us not stand gazing up to Heaven. 
Time admonishes us to fulfil the living maxims and 
the dying injunctions of these venerated patriots ; — to 
preserve the liberty which they gained, — to maintain 
the union which they cemented ; to build up the 
institutions which they founded, and 

In each hall where Freedom spoke 

With burning accents, let the vow 
That from the lips of sages broke 
Be by their sons repeated now. 
Calling to remembrance still 

All their struggles to be free ; 
Their firm unconquerable will. 

Breathing through that great decree.''^ 
Let us rouse the patriot fires, 

In each ardent freeman's breast. 
With gratitude that ne'er expires. 
With a zeal that ne'er shall rest. 

* The "Declaration." 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Adams, John xxiii, 176-180; 

death of, 169; oration on, 169-194; 

his "Defence oftheConstitution,"i88 
Academy of Germantown . I 34 note, 169 

Albemarle County, Va 55 

Alexandria, Va 60, 1 60 

Amee Marguerite, The sloop 1' . .54 

American Association for the Advancement 

of Science 170 

Anas of Jefferson 132 

Ast, William, Jefferson to, 73 

Austin, David, Commission of . . . .59 

Ballard, Mr 63 

Baltimore, xiii, 34, 76, 79, 81, 82, 106, 

107, 160, 161; British vice consul 

at, 78; Privateers fitted out in, . 80 

Bank of Germantown xv 

Bank of the United States, loi, 103, 163 
Bankson, Benjamin 41, 42, loi, 103 note 

Barbour, Mr 100 

Barnard's American Journal ofEduca- 

tion, 170 

Bartram's Gardens, xi 

Bell, Colonel 32 

Belvidere, 160 

Benson — , 160 

Betts, Colonel 106 

Biddle, Samuel . . . 32, 107, 115, 118 

Blackwell, Mr 41,42, loi 

Bladensburg, 160 

Blenheim, . . 56 

Bockius Inn, 44, 48; 

see also King of Frussia Ir.n 

Bonsall, Edward H xxiv 

Boston Public Library, . . . . 171 

Bouteille, Mr 70 

Brandywine, 161 

Bringhurst, 1 164 

Bristol Township, 170 

Brown, John, .... 66, 83 note, 106 



PAGE 

Bunker Hill, 183 

Cabinet Decisions, I 51-15 5 

Cabinet Meetings, 129-150 

Campbell, Robert, .... . . 163 

Campbell, William J., 171 

Captures in American Waters, 44, 46, 47, 
51. 52, 53. 54, 60, 61, 62, 63, 

76-84, 89, 104 

Carmichael, Mr 100, lOI 

Carr, Dabney ... 54 

Carr, Mrs. Martha . 54, 119, 162, 163 

Carr, Peter, Jefl^erson to 54 

Carter, Mrs 56 

Carver, Captain, of "The Industry" . 79 

Carvin, Mr 70 

Cary, Colonel . . 55 

Central High School, 170 

Ceracchi, Giuseppe, Jefferson to . . .75 

Chaise, M. la, 40 

Channing, William, ....... 83 

Chapman, Mr 99, 100, loi 

Charleston, S. C, 109 

Charlottesville, Va. , 106 

Chatham, 160 

Chervi, M., 36, 109, 155 

Chesapeake Bay, French operations in, 34 

Chester, Pa., 161 

Chew, Benjamin, Jr. , 169 

Church, Angelica Schuyler, 122 note; let- 
ters from Jefferson, 122, 123, 124 
Church, John Barker, . . . .122 note 
Church, Mrs. John Barker (Angelica 

Schuyler) 122 note 

Church, Kitty (?) 122 

"Citoyen Genet," The Privateer . 84, 86 
Clarkson, Matthew, Mayor of Philadel- 
phia, XV, 1 17 

Clinton, George 29 

Clover seed, purchase of, . . . 107, 161 
Colchester, 160 



PAGE 

Commerce, French treaty of, . . 35, 36 
Congress, Meeting of . 27, 31, 47, 49, 91, 
96, 116; Opinion of Jefferson, 28,57 
of Hamilton, 28; of Randolph, 28; 
of William Rawle, 28; Washington's 
perplexity, 3 1 : the Germantown 

School suggested, 57, 58 

Congress, constitutional powers of, i 36— 142 
Coningham, The Brig, .... 89, 154 
Connecticut Courant, . . . .145 note 
Consuls, Commissions of foreign, must be 
presented to the president, 107, 108 
. . . . see also Marine yurisdiction 

Consular Etiquette, 108, 109 

Copper for the Mint, 38, 121 

Corny, Madame de, 122, 123 

Cosway, Madame, 123 

Cotton gin. Invention of, xxi, 90, 91, 1 11, 

112, 113, 114 

Coxe, Tench, 121; to Jefferson ... 63 

Cropper, Miss 98 

Crosby, Mr xvii, 163, 164 

Dalton, Peter 47 

Danish Claims, 104, 105 

Dannery, M 108, 155 

Declaration of Independence . . 169, 191 

Delogier, Daniel 63 

Department of State, Expenses of . .165 

De Vieux 67 

Diary, Jefferson's Financial, xxiii, 159-165 

Didier, Peter 163 

District Attorneys, Instructions of Jefferson 

to . xxii, 60-63, ^8> i^6» i*7> ^53 

Dodson, Richard, Jefferson to . . . .33 

Donald, Mr 72 

Dover, Mortgage on, 94 

Dumas, Mr 37 

Dunkirk, France, 48, 56 

Duplaine, M 155 

Dutch Minister to the U. S 44 

Eames, Wilberforce, .... xxiii, xxiv 

Elk River, 107 

Elkton, Md., xiii, 160 

Elliot, Hartman xiii, 161 



PAGE 

Elliston & Perot 162 

England, Treaty of Peace vi\th, 68, 68 note; 

see Great Britain 

Engle (or Ingles), 163 

Engraver of the Mint 38, no 

Fair Hill 30 

Falmouth, 160 

Falls of Schuylkill 40 

Fanny, The British brig, .... 44, 46 

Fanueil Hall, . 183 

Ferguson, Jefferson's horse, . . . xx, 118 

Filibustering Expeditions, 70 

Financial Diary 159-165 

Ford, Paul Leicester, xviii, xix 

Ford's Writings of Jefferson . . xviii, 132 
Foreigners, laws protecting, . . . .126 
Fortifications, debate on .... 144, 147 
France, !<; 3; attitude towards the U.S. 148, 

149; treaty with, 137 note; see Genet 

Franklin, Benjamin, 186, 187 

Franks, Col. Isaac 136 note 

Franks, the barber, 161 

Fredericksburg, xiii, 31, 160 

Freeman, Clarkson, 64 

Freeman, Ezra Fitz, 64 

French Consuls, 126 

French refugees, 126; in Carolina, 109, 1 10 
French Revolution, Hamilton's abhorrence 

of the, 134 

French West Indies, . . 117, 137 note 
French National Assembly's decree on 

Commerce, 35> 3^ 

Freneau, Philip, 32, 56, 162 

Fullerton, Mrs 98, 163 

Gamble, Col. Robert . . .51, 106 note 

" Jefferson to 71 

" to Jefferson 105 

Gatewood's, 160 

Genet, Edmond Charles . . xxii, 29, 69, 

86, 89, 96, 99, 102, 121, 134,135, 

136, 138, I39i 139 note, 140,14s. 

150, 154, 155; his marriage, 29 
Genet, Jefferson to, 33, 35, 44, 51, 86, 

104, 108, 109, III, 116 .... 



PAGE 

Genet, to Jefferson 145 note 

Genet, recalled 138 

Georgetown, 160 

German Reformed church, . .134 note 
Germantown Academy, . . 57, i34note, 

169, 170 

Germantown Academy Trustees, Letter 

to 57, 58 

Germantown, Bank of xv 

Germantown Cabinet Meetings, . 129-150 
Germantown, Jefferson reaches . . .161 
Germantown, Jefferson leaves . . .164 
Germantown Letters, The . . . 25-127 
Overcrowding, . . 28, 31 
Patriotism of its citizens, . 58 

School, 57 

Gilliams, Doctor .... xvi, xvii, 161 

Gordon's, 160 

Gore, Christopher 127, 155 

Grandanse, St. Domingo, .... 48, 56 
Gray, Vincent, Commission of, . . . 60 

Gray's Gardens, xi 

Great Britain, 137 note, 153; attitude to- 
wards the U. S., . . . . 148, 149 

Greenleaf, Mr 37 

Hague & Liester, 106 

Hamilton, Alexander 27, 30, 44, 58, 87, 
I33> 134, 136, 137, 138, 141, 14^, 
144. 147, 148, 150, 154; 
His responsibility for Washington's 

documents 58 

Hamilton, Bust of 75 

Hamilton, Mrs. Alexander . , 132 note 

Hamilton, Fort 96 

Hamilton, S. M xxiv 

Hammond, George, British Minister xxii, 
87, 88, 89, 100, loi, 149, 154 

42, 68 note, 76, 86 

Hammond, .George, Jefferson to 42, 68, 

note 76, 86 

Hammond, George, to Jefferson . 68 note 

Hancock, John 29 

Harrison, Richard 127 

Hart, Patrick, Jefferson to, 74 



PAGE 

Harvard College, 170 

Hawley, Mr 182 

Henry, Patrick, 182 

Herman, Rev. Frederic, xiv, I 34 note 

Herald of the U. S. 47 

Hill, Henry 68 

Hollingsworth, Jacob . 32, 154, 161,162 
Hollingsworth, Jacob, Jefferson to . . 107 

Hollingsworth, Zebulon 127 

Homassel, Jefferson to 67 

Hopkins, Mr, Jefferson to 66 

Houses in Germantown : 

130 W. Scliool Lane, xiv, 134 note 

5518 Main St xiv, 28 

5275 Main St. xv 

School House, .... 57, 134 note 

5442 Main St 135 note 

Howell, David xxi 

Howell, David, Jefferson to .... 83 

Hubbard, Mr 37 

Indians, Northwestern .... 120, 121 
"Industry," The French privateer, 76, 78 

79, 80, 81, 87 

Ingles, or Engle 163 

Inns see Ta-verns 

Insurance, System of 73 

''Jane," The, of Dublin 155 

Jaudenes, Don Joseph de, 39, 88; letter 

from Jefferson to, 39 

Jay, John, Dispute with Genet, 145 note, 

146 

Jefferson, George 54 

Jefferson, Maria, xi, xx, 32, 56, 119, 123, 
160; Letter from Jefferson to, . . 97 

Jefferson, Martha 

. . see Martha Jeffenon Randolph 
Jefferson, Thomas, . 133, 180, 181, 182 

Anas, 131, 132 

The Journey to Germantown, xiii, 30, 
31; Its great cost, 31; arrival 161; 
residence, xv ; leaves Germantown 

xvii, 164 

Death of, 169 

Eulogy on, .... xxiii, 169-194 



PAGE 

Finances, xxi, 33, 92, 93, 94, 95, 
. . 102-03 note, 119, 157-165 
Financial Diary, . . xxiii, 157-165 
Author of Patent system of the U.S. 90 
Ceracchi's bust of, .... 75 note 
Commission to David Austin, 59; to 

Vincent Gray, 60 

Dentistry, xvi, xvii 

Household expenses, xvii 

Randall's life of, 75 note 

"Notes on Virginia," .... 188 
Opinion of Washington . . . .105 

Trust in God, 57 

His responsibility for Washington's 

documents 58 

Protest against French naval opera- 
tions, 34 

Sarah Randolph's Domestic Life of, 

122 note 

Retirement from office, xii,37,84,io6 

As a farmer, 107, 115; buys clover 

. . . seed, 107; buys sheep, 115 

His city office 93 

Sister of, 54 

Writings, xviii, 132 

Jefferson, Thomas. . His letters, xviii, xix; 
letters written in Germantown, xix 

Jefferson to William Ast, 73 

" David Austin, ... 59 

" Peter Carr, 54 

" Giuseppe Ceracchi, ... 75 
" Angelica Church, . . .122 
" District Attorneys, . 60, 126 
" Richard Dobson . . . .33 
" Dutch Minister, .... 44 
" Robert Gamble, . . . .71 
" Genet, Edmond Charles, 33, 
35. 44, 5i> 86, 104, 108, 
109, 111,116 . . . . 
" Christopher Gore, , . .126 

" Vincent Gray, 60 

" George Hammond, . . 42, 68 

76, 86 

" Richard Harrison, . . .126 



Jefferson to Patrick Hart, 74 

'* " Jacob HoUingsworth, . .107 
" " Zebulon HoUingsworth, . 126 

" " Homassel, 67 

' ' " Hopkins, 66 

" " David Howell, 83 

" " Maria Jefferson, .... 97 

" " John Kean, 93 

" " Patrick Kennon, .... 64 
" " Henry Knox, . . 40, 53, 87 

" " Tobias Lear, 37 

" " Herman Le Roy, .... 94 
" " James Madison, 27, 47,50 note 

96 

" " Robert Morris, U. S.Judge, 64 

" " Mr. Myers, 119 

" " William Moultrie, ... 69 
" " John Nancarrow, . . .124 

" " Mr. Nevvbern, 72 

" " Thomas Parker, . . . .126 
" " Thomas Pinckney, . . .120 
" " Martha Jefferson Randolph, 55 
" '* Thomas Mann Randolph, 30 

118 

" " William Rawle, . . 84, 126 
" " Henry Remsen, Jr., ... 49 
" " David Rittenhouse, . . .38 
" " John Ross, . 102, 102 note 

" " Robert Scott, no 

" " Richard Soderstrom, . .104 
" " Spanish Minister, .... 44 
" " Archibald Stuart, 1 1 5, 1 24 note 
" " George Taylor . . . 91, 99 
" " Trustees of the German- 
town School, . . . .57 
" " Viar and Jaudenes, ... 39 

" " Washington, 87 

" "Eli Whitney, 90 

Jefferson, Thomas 

Letter from Tench Coxe, , . . .63 
" " Robert Gamble, . .105 
" " Edmond Charles Genet 

145 note 

" " George Hammond 68 note 



PAGE 

Jefferson to Edward Rutlege .... 4^ 
" " George Taylor, . 41, 101 
" " Eli Whitney, . . .111 

Johnson, Thomas 29 

Johnson, Walter R. xxiii, 169, 170, 171; 
his eulogy on Jefferson, xxiii, 171-194 

Jones, Joseph 162 

Jordan, John W xxiv 

Jurisdiction at sea — see Marine yurisJiciion 
Kean, John . . . 92,93, 101, loi note 

Kean, Mrs. John 93 

Kean, John, Jefferson to 93 

Kennon, Patrick 162; Jefferson to . .64 

Kentucky, Govenor of 39, 88 

Kentucky, Anti-Spanish expedition from 

39.40 

Keyser, Naaman H xxiv 

Killy, Hon. Mr 79, 81 

King, Rufus dispute with Genet, 145 

note, 146 

King of Prussia Tavern xiv, 28, 44, 48, 161 
Knox, General Henry 27, 44, 87, 133, 

134, 135. 140, 145. 147, 149. 150. 

IS4> 155; Jefferson to 40, 53, 87 . 

La Fayette, 1 2 1, 122 

Lancaster, Pa., 28, 31, 47, 91, 92, 134, 

note, 135 

Lansdowne, 68 

Lapsley, Thomas, . xv, xvii, 17, 98, 161, 

163, 164 

Lear, Tobias, Jefferson to, 37 

Lee, Governor Thomas Sim, . . 79, 87 

Lenox Library, xxiv, 93, 159 

Le Roy, Caroline, 94 

Le Roy, Herman, xxi. Letter from 

Jefferson, 94 

Le Roy, Bayard & Co., 94 

Lewis, H. R., 28 

Lexington, Battle of 183 

Liester, 106 

Livingston, Robert R., 29 

Logan, Dr. George 163 

''Lovely Lass," The 155 

McClurg, James 29 



PAGE 

McKean, Thomas, Governor of Penn- 
sylvania, 89 

McL [James McClurg,] 29 

Madison, Ambrose 162 

Madison, James xv, xvi, xxi, 48, 96, 162 
163; Jefferson to, 27, 47, 50 note, 96 

Madrid, 100 

Marine Jurisdiction of the United States, xxii 

4^, 43. 45. 46, 51. 52. S3. 60, 

61, 62, 63, 76, 77, 78.79. 80, 81, 

82, 83, 84, 8s, 86, 104, 153 . . 

Maritime Law — see Captures. Marine Jfur- 

isdiction 

Market Square, Germantown, . 1 34 note 

Martinique, loi, 102 

Maryland, 127; district attorney of, 89; 

Governor of, 79, 87 

Massachusetts, 127 

Massachusetts Historical collections, .111 

Mery, 163 

Military Academy, 144, 147 

Miller, Phineas 113 

Mint at Philadelphia, Copper for the, . 38 
David Rittenhouse, Director . .38 
Joseph Wright, designer . . . .38 

Engraver for the, no 

Mohawk, The ship 121 

Moissonier, Consul at Baltimore 3 3 , 34, 1 54 
Monroe, James, . . xv, xvi, 27, 48, 96 
Monticello mentioned, xii, xx, xxi, 33, 37, 
106, 115, 124, 159, 160 ... . 
Morris, Gouverneur . . . 99, 139 note 
Morris, Robert, U. S. Judge, .... 88 
Jefferson to, 64; Reply note . . 64 
Moultrie, William . . .29, 69, 70, 88 

no, 140 

Mount Vernon, I 74 

Muhlenberg, F. A., 28 

Myers, 162, 163; Jefferson to . . .119 
Nancarrow, John, . 124 note, 125 note 

Jefferson to 124, 125 

Nancarrow, Mrs. John 124 

National Gazette, .... 32, 56, i6i 
Negroes not susceptible to yellow fever, . 3 1 



PAGE 

Neutrality, Declaration of, . . 136, 137 
Proclamation of, 136 note, 140 

141, 142, 143 

Newbern, Mr, of Richmond, . .71, 105 
Letter from Jefferson, ... 72 

New Haven, Ct., 59 

Newspapers 

Connecticut Courant, . . 145 note 
Herald of the United States ... 47 
National Gazette, . . . 32, 56, 161 

Virginia Chronicle, 72 

New York, . . . 28, 31, 51, 123, 127 

Norfolk, Va., 51 

North, Lord 181, 191 

North Carolina, Governor of, . . 54, 88 
Oration on Adams and Jefferson, . .169 

Orrer)', Jefferson's xx, 74 

"Pacificus," Alexander Hamilton's . 141 

Page, Carter 55 

Parker, Thomas 127 

Patent System of the United States, . . 90 
Patterson [Paterson, N.J.,] 91, 113,114 
Pearce's cotton gin, . . . 91, 113, 114 

Penn Township, 170 

Pennevert, M, 109, 155 

Pennsylvania, 127; Governor of, . . 80 
Pennsylvania, Historical Society of, . xxiii, 

94, 171 • •- 

Perot — see Elliston & Perot, . . . .162 
Philadelphia, Congress to meet in, . .31 

Mayor of, 117 

"Pigon," The 38, 121 

"Pilgram," The 89, 154 

Pinckney, Thomas .... 38, 50, 51 
Pinckney, Thomas, Jefferson to . . 1 20 
President's constitutional powers, i 36-145 
"Prince William Henry" The, . .155 

Privateers see Captures 

Prize Law see Captures 

Proclamation of Neutrality . . . .136 
"Providence," The British sloop, . . 54 
Rain stops the Yellow Fever, . . . 1 20 
Randall, Henry S., Life of Jefferson 

by, 75 note 



PAGE 

Randolph, Colonel 119 

Randolph, David 74 

Randolph, Edmund, xv, 27, 44, 87, 96 

133, 134, 135) 136, 137. I39> 140 
141, 142, 144, 145, 145 note, 147 

149, 150, i<;4, 155 

Randolph, Martha Jefferson, . . xx, 30 

119, 123; Letter from Jefferson, 55 

Randolph, M.,Jr. , . . . . . .160 

Randolph, Thomas Jefferson, . . . xviii 
Randolph, Thomas Mann, xx, 30, 32, 55 

56, 71, 74, 95. 98, 115, 1^3 • • 
Randolph, Thomas Mann, Jefferson 

to, 30, 118 

Rawle, William, . 28, 84, 86, 127, 154 

Letter from Jefferson, 84 

Reading, Pa., . 47, 86, 134 note, 135 
Remsen, Henry, Jr. , Jefferson to, . . 49 
Refugees from St. Domingo, . . .117 

Riot of, 117 

Revenue Inspectors, appointment of, . 63 

Richardson, 164 

Richmond, Va., 50, 51, 72, 91,106, 116 

Riot in Philadelphia, 117 

Rittenhouse, David 98 

Rittenhouse, David, Jefferson to, . . . 38 
Rittenhouse, Mrs. David . . . . 38, 98 
Rochampton, The British ship, 76, 80,81 

87, 89, 154 

Rocket's, 106, 160 

Rogers, overseer, 32 

Rogers's, 160 

Ross, John . . 29, 161, 102 note, 103 
Ross John, Jefferson to . 102, 102 note 

Ross, Mrs. John, 103 

Roxborough, Phila., • 170 

Runevert, Mr 36 

Rutlege, Edward, 29; to Jefferson . . 48 
St. Domingo, . . .48, 56, 76, 79, 117 

Refugees from, 48, 49 

Salaries, Government, 92 

Schuyler, General Philip, . . .122 note 
Scott, Robert, Jefferson to, . . . . IIO 

Commission as engraver, . . .110 



PAGE 

Sechel, Mr., 96 

Secretary of State, salary of 92 

Sheep, purchase of, 115, 163 

Shelby, Isaac, Governor of Kentucky, . 88 

Shippen, Dr., 161 

Shippen, Thomas, 56 

Shippen, Mrs. Thomas & her sister, . 56 
Short, William, . 65, 66, loi, 102, 162 

Skipworth, Fulwar, ioi,ioz 

Smith, — , of South Carolina, .... 28 
Smith, Charles, & Co., .... 162, 163 

Smitli, Jonathan, .101 

Smith, Rev. William, 40 

South Carolina, 127; Governor of, . 1 10 
Spaight, Richard Dobbs, Governor of 

North Carolina, 88 

Spain, 153 

Spanish complaints, 40 

Spanish Minister to the United States, . 44 
Spanish possessions, expedition from 

Kentucky into, 39, 40 

Spencer, Nathan, xvi 

Spuryear, 160 

Stafford Court House, 160 

Stage coaches, 31, 47 

State Department, expenses of the, . 165 
State Laws protecting foreigners, . .126 

Staunton, Va., 106, 115, n6 

Stewart, Mr., 118 

Stewart, A., 162 

Stuart, Archibald, 124, 162 

Letters from Jefferson, 115, 124 note 
Soderstrom, Richard, letter from Jef- 
ferson, 104 

Susquehanna, The, • 160 

Sweden, Consul of, 104 

Swedish claims, 104, 105 

Taylor George, loi, 161 

Taylor George, to Jefferson . .41, loi 
Taylor, George, Jefferson to . . . 91, 99 

Telescope, Jefferson's xx, 72 

Threshing Machine .... xx, 50, 51 

Tilden, Samuel J 159 

Toulon captured by the English 48,56, 116 



PAGE 

Traveling Expenses xiii 

Treaty Making Power under the constitution 

142, '43 

Treaty of Commerce 35 

Treaty with France 137 note 

Treaty with Great Britain . . 68, 68 note 

Trenton, N. J 154 

Turtle Island 70 

United Netherlands 153 

Vainqueur de la Bastille, the ship . . 54 
Van Staphorst Brothers, Jacob and Nicholas 

37, 94 

Varina, Mortgage on 95 

Vaughan, Mr 67 

Vessels, seizure of 52 

Viar, Don Joseph de 395 letter 

from Jefferson, 39 

Viar and Jaudenea 39, 88 

Virginia 123 

Virginia Chronicle • • 72 

Virginia Cotton Manufacture . . 90, 91 
Virginia, Historical Society of, . 115 note 

124 note 

Warren R. 1 47 

Washington, D. C, 170 

Washington, George .11, 27, 122, 133 
to 150, 153, 154, 155, 174 .. . 
Importance to the country, . .105 

Residence, 135 

Speech to Congress, . 136 note, 147 
Messages on France and England, 148 

Message on Spain, 148 

MSS. in Library of Congress, 153 note 
Washington to Trustees of the German- 
town School, 58 

The Trustees call on him . . .58 
"Washington in Germantown," by 

Charles F. Jenkins, . xviii, 136 note 

Washington, Jefferson to 87 

Washington, Ceracchi's Monument to, 75 

Washington, H. A xviii, 132 

Watson, 32 

Watson's Annals, xv 

Wayne, General Anthony 96 



PAGE 

Webster, Daniel 94 

Webster, Mrs. Daniel 94 

Weiss, xvii, 163 

West India Islands, 117 

West Point 144, 144 note 

Whitney, Eli, xxi, 11 1, 112,113, 114,115 

Jefferson to, 90 

Letter to Jefferson, iii 

"William," the British ship, 47, 84, 85 

■86, 89, 154 

Willing, Thomas, 29 

Wilmington, Del., xiii 



PAGE 

Wirtz, 163 

Wright, Joseph, 83 

Wright's, 160 

Writings of Jefferson, 132 

Wythe, Mr., 92 

Yellow fever, xi, xiv, xv, 27, 28, 29, 31 

47, 49, 56, 71, 7^, 91,97,105, "6 

120 

Death of Joseph Wright, . . 38, 47 
Negroes not susceptible, . . . .31 
Diminished by great rains, . . 96, 97 



MAR 7 1907 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




011 838 332 1 



